Tony Clement Spends $50 Million to Help Flip Property

With a $50 million gift of taxpayers money, the Deerhurst Resort's owners are now hoping to cash in big time.

And they owe it all to Tony Clement.

Hope he at least gets a nice meal out of it.

Deerhurst was briefly put on the market for sale in 2008, the year of the financial market crash before the listing was pulled. This time around it doesn’t hurt that images of Deerhurst have been sent around the globe during last month’s G8 Summit gathering of top world leaders. During the meeting, an eight kilometre wire fence was installed around the resort for
security.

The property may also be attractive to a buyer because of more than $50 million worth of infrastructure improvements in the Muskoka area to prepare for the visit.

and:

“The majority of the on-site government budget was event-based and temporary,” she said, adding an undisclosed amount of government money was spent “to ensure all 10 leaders’ suites were identical and to reconfigure a ballroom half-wall slightly to allow for the division of the space.”

Still, the spending associated with hosting the government summit pumped at least $50-million into infrastructure projects in the area to prepare for the world leaders’ visit. The improvements included the repaving of Deerhurst Road, improvement of the region’s power grid and enhanced cellphone coverage.

There is no such thing as government money. That is our money Clement gave you to spruce up the place.

So much for austerity. I'll be following this story and I think the ethics commissioner should get involved. That Clement is a sly one.

This sounds a bit like the Adams Mines story when he was in the Ontario cabinet, that involved the Cortellucci-Montemarano Group. Mike Harris eventually was forced to resign over it.

During last year's Tory leadership campaign, the Cortellucci-Montemarano Group contributed $44,600 to Mr. Eves through seven subsidiaries and $40,000 to Ms. Witmer through six subsidiaries. Enterprise Minister Jim Flaherty received $46,000, Health Minister Tony Clement $40,000 and Mr. Stockwell $15,000. (Government accused of secret land deal, By Richard Mackie, The Globe and Mail May 8, 2003)