Canada leads Pan Am Games medal standings
- Thread starter #juan
- Start date
Final medal count:
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
1 United States 103 81 81 265
2 Canada Canada 78 69 70 217
3 Brazil Brazil 41 40 60 141
USA # 1 !
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
1 United States 103 81 81 265
2 Canada Canada 78 69 70 217
3 Brazil Brazil 41 40 60 141
USA # 1 !
Pan Am Games $342M over budget but fat bonuses still given
By Christina Blizzard, Queen's Park Columnist
First posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2016 11:06 AM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, June 08, 2016 07:45 PM EDT
TORONTO - Today, gentle readers, I will write only half a column.
The second part of my deathless prose will only be penned if you give me a massive bonus.
That’s how it worked at the Pork Am — er, Pan Am — Games. I’m sure it can work for me.
Pan Am bosses cleaned up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses — despite the fact that the games, according to auditor general Bonnie Lysyk, cost $342 million more than initially budgeted.
It was only because the budget kept increasing that the games were able to come in “under budget.” Between the 2009 bid and October 2014, the budget was hiked three times — from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion — allowing the games to come in “under budget” at $1.7 billion.
The province covered most of the $342 million.
Now that’s a “stretch” budget.
But by coming in under budget, the fat cats with their bloated salaries still got their bloated bonuses. CEO Saad Rafi CEO collected a cool $438,718 in salary. Before bonus.
There were 53 executives who qualified for bonuses.
Tourism Minister Michael Coteau gave the most astonishing explanation for why TO2015 had to pay these gold-plated bonuses to people who were already making gold-plated salaries.
“If we don’t pay them, people take flight,” he said.
“We could have had these key people who are organizing this games for five years jump to 2016 Rio. The completion bonuses are kept there to keep people in their jobs until the end.”
Really? Here’s an idea, minister. Next time you negotiate a contract with an employee, tell them if they take flight — they don’t get paid.
“Although TO2015’s net operating budget was increased by $74 million, the TO2015 board decided to pay 100% of the bonus to employees,” Lysyk told reporters Wednesday.
And 25% of those bonuses were paid to the bosses for meeting the capital budget — even though TO2015 was only responsible for managing 2% of the capital budget infrastructure.
The rest was handled by universities, municipalities and so on.
So 25% of their bonus was based on something they didn’t do.
Where can I get that kind of job? They got paid for someone else’s work.
Much as Coteau tried to put a happy face on it, pointing out that the Athletes’ Village came in on time and on budget, the hypocrisy is when you’re setting your own budget targets, it’s pretty tough to miss them.
And when your bonus is based on your ability to meet budget, you’re going to ratchet up the budget when you can’t make your goal.
Your salary is from the public purse. Your budget is from the public purse.
Who’s going to complain — except the auditor?
PC Leader Patrick Brown questioned why we’re paying people to show up for work.
“Simply showing up for work and getting lavish bonuses doesn’t seem appropriate for a province that is awash in deficit,” Brown said.
I’ll say. Here’s the bad news:
The guy who brought the games in over the original budget but under the stretch budget is the person who’s going to be in charge of your pension.
That’s right. Rafi has gone on to greater glory at the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.
Some people get all the golden parachutes.
And the winners of the Pan Am pork trough challenge are:
GOLD MEDAL: TO2015 bosses who raked in massive bonuses, despite the fact the games cost $365 million more than the original bid of $1.4 billion.
SILVER: Broadcast rights — usually a source of “significant revenue,” according to the auditor. Not so for Pan Am. The Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) retained and sold international broadcast rights to the games and didn’t share that revenue with TO2015.
TO2015 concluded they were entitled to 50% of net revenues from the sale of international broadcast rights. They’ve been unsuccessful getting any money from PASO, despite numerous attempts.
TO2015 paid PASO $20 million for the right to sell sponsorships to the games, and to sell film, video, TV, Internet and radio rights within Canada. Projected revenues from the sale of broadcast rights were $2.6 million, but actual revenues were just $300,000.
It cost TO2015 nearly $22 million to produce the broadcast feed for the games because PASO required it to provide a TV signal of international quality.
BRONZE: Pachi the Porcupine. What’s not to love about a made-in-China stuffed toy that was the games mascot? Well, it seems sales weren’t what they’d hope for.
Projected revenue from licensing in the 2009 bid budget was $3.6 million. Actual licensing revenue was only $2.1 million, due to lower merchandise sales.
A retailer of games merchandise who operated three stores and several smaller booths filed for bankruptcy, owing TO2015 about $654,000.
RUNNER-UP: Control-ALT-Delete. Hard drives were wiped as employees left 2015 after the games, making it tougher for the auditor general to do her work.
cblizzard@postmedia.com
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne receives an honourary Pan Am Games torch from David Peterson, chair of Toronto 2015, July 9, 2015. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Pan Am Games $342M over budget but fat bonuses still given | Blizzard | Ontario
By Christina Blizzard, Queen's Park Columnist
First posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2016 11:06 AM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, June 08, 2016 07:45 PM EDT
TORONTO - Today, gentle readers, I will write only half a column.
The second part of my deathless prose will only be penned if you give me a massive bonus.
That’s how it worked at the Pork Am — er, Pan Am — Games. I’m sure it can work for me.
Pan Am bosses cleaned up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses — despite the fact that the games, according to auditor general Bonnie Lysyk, cost $342 million more than initially budgeted.
It was only because the budget kept increasing that the games were able to come in “under budget.” Between the 2009 bid and October 2014, the budget was hiked three times — from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion — allowing the games to come in “under budget” at $1.7 billion.
The province covered most of the $342 million.
Now that’s a “stretch” budget.
But by coming in under budget, the fat cats with their bloated salaries still got their bloated bonuses. CEO Saad Rafi CEO collected a cool $438,718 in salary. Before bonus.
There were 53 executives who qualified for bonuses.
Tourism Minister Michael Coteau gave the most astonishing explanation for why TO2015 had to pay these gold-plated bonuses to people who were already making gold-plated salaries.
“If we don’t pay them, people take flight,” he said.
“We could have had these key people who are organizing this games for five years jump to 2016 Rio. The completion bonuses are kept there to keep people in their jobs until the end.”
Really? Here’s an idea, minister. Next time you negotiate a contract with an employee, tell them if they take flight — they don’t get paid.
“Although TO2015’s net operating budget was increased by $74 million, the TO2015 board decided to pay 100% of the bonus to employees,” Lysyk told reporters Wednesday.
And 25% of those bonuses were paid to the bosses for meeting the capital budget — even though TO2015 was only responsible for managing 2% of the capital budget infrastructure.
The rest was handled by universities, municipalities and so on.
So 25% of their bonus was based on something they didn’t do.
Where can I get that kind of job? They got paid for someone else’s work.
Much as Coteau tried to put a happy face on it, pointing out that the Athletes’ Village came in on time and on budget, the hypocrisy is when you’re setting your own budget targets, it’s pretty tough to miss them.
And when your bonus is based on your ability to meet budget, you’re going to ratchet up the budget when you can’t make your goal.
Your salary is from the public purse. Your budget is from the public purse.
Who’s going to complain — except the auditor?
PC Leader Patrick Brown questioned why we’re paying people to show up for work.
“Simply showing up for work and getting lavish bonuses doesn’t seem appropriate for a province that is awash in deficit,” Brown said.
I’ll say. Here’s the bad news:
The guy who brought the games in over the original budget but under the stretch budget is the person who’s going to be in charge of your pension.
That’s right. Rafi has gone on to greater glory at the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.
Some people get all the golden parachutes.
And the winners of the Pan Am pork trough challenge are:
GOLD MEDAL: TO2015 bosses who raked in massive bonuses, despite the fact the games cost $365 million more than the original bid of $1.4 billion.
SILVER: Broadcast rights — usually a source of “significant revenue,” according to the auditor. Not so for Pan Am. The Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) retained and sold international broadcast rights to the games and didn’t share that revenue with TO2015.
TO2015 concluded they were entitled to 50% of net revenues from the sale of international broadcast rights. They’ve been unsuccessful getting any money from PASO, despite numerous attempts.
TO2015 paid PASO $20 million for the right to sell sponsorships to the games, and to sell film, video, TV, Internet and radio rights within Canada. Projected revenues from the sale of broadcast rights were $2.6 million, but actual revenues were just $300,000.
It cost TO2015 nearly $22 million to produce the broadcast feed for the games because PASO required it to provide a TV signal of international quality.
BRONZE: Pachi the Porcupine. What’s not to love about a made-in-China stuffed toy that was the games mascot? Well, it seems sales weren’t what they’d hope for.
Projected revenue from licensing in the 2009 bid budget was $3.6 million. Actual licensing revenue was only $2.1 million, due to lower merchandise sales.
A retailer of games merchandise who operated three stores and several smaller booths filed for bankruptcy, owing TO2015 about $654,000.
RUNNER-UP: Control-ALT-Delete. Hard drives were wiped as employees left 2015 after the games, making it tougher for the auditor general to do her work.
cblizzard@postmedia.com
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne receives an honourary Pan Am Games torch from David Peterson, chair of Toronto 2015, July 9, 2015. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Pan Am Games $342M over budget but fat bonuses still given | Blizzard | Ontario
I often wonder why Americans are so insecure about themselves that they have to yap away like this. If you are really so #1 you would know it and keep your big cake holes shut about it.
Privacy watchdog to probe Pan Am Games hard drive destruction
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Thursday, June 09, 2016 07:17 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, June 09, 2016 07:20 PM EDT
TORONTO - Ontario’s privacy watchdog says he will investigate the destruction of hard drives at T02015, including the computer of former Pan Am Games CEO Saad Rafi.
In a statement to the Toronto Sun, Brian Beamish said Thursday he will probe the hard drive disposal by games staff flagged in auditor general Bonnie Lysyk’s report.
The auditor said her value-for-money audit of the games was limited by the destruction. Her staff had requested access to a dozen executive hard drives but found that nine of them had been destroyed during the “wind-up” process after last summer’s event.
“In light of these comments, my office will be investigating to determine whether TO2015 followed appropriate record keeping and record retention practices,” Beamish said. “The investigation report will be made public when it is completed.”
Opposition critics hammered the government Thursday, calling for both Beamish to investigate and for an OPP probe into the destruction of the hard drives.
In a letter to Commissioner Vince Hawkes, NDP MPP Paul Miller asks the OPP to look into the matter.
“I am calling on you to move quickly to take all necessary steps to ensure that all the information required for a possible investigation is not destroyed or deleted,” Miller says. “The outcome of your investigation could hinge on the ability of investigators to seize information in its complete form. I trust that you will act in the best interest of Ontarians.”
Earlier in the day, Progressive Conservative MPP Steve Clark called on Premier Kathleen Wynne to fire Rafi from his job as CEO of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.
“Destroying hard drives before the auditor general sees what’s on them is evidence again of their outright contempt for transparency,” Clark said during question period. “Premier, will you fire Saad Rafi before more documents are deleted and ORPP becomes this province’s next scandal?”
The entire situation is similar to the deletion of emails surrounding the gas plant scandal, Clark said, calling it a “pattern of behaviour and refusal to adhere to proper records-management policies.”
On Wednesday, a value-for-money probe of TO2015 done by Lysyk said the province paid 61% over its original budget commitment of $500 million. In the end, Ontario spent $342 million more on the Pan Am Games than it initially promised.
Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Coteau defended Rafi and repeatedly told reporters that Lysyk herself said there was no reason to suspect wrongdoing in relation to the destruction of the hard drives. The auditor’s office had access to all the documents through a cloud computer server, he said.
“Again, the auditor general was very clear that nothing wrong was done and the process was followed, so I think (Rafi) did a great job,” Coteau said. “It was a very complex operation they’re running. They did an incredible job of delivering the most successful games Ontario and Canada has ever experienced. I was quite happy with the entire process.”
Asked to clarify Thursday, Lysyk confirmed that she do not suspect any wrongdoing in relation to the hard drive destruction. But in a statement to the Sun, she acknowledged that material on the cloud server she was given access to “may not be the full content of a person’s hard drive.”
sjeffords@postmedia.com
Saad Rafi. (Stan Behal/Toronto Sun files)
Privacy watchdog to probe Pan Am Games hard drive destruction | Ontario | News |
Pan Am execs should return bonuses: CTF
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Thursday, June 09, 2016 08:21 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, June 09, 2016 08:25 PM EDT
TORONTO - TO2015 bigwigs paid millions in bonuses for delivering the games on-budget should pay back the incentives after Ontario’s auditor general revealed the event incurred an extra $342 million in costs.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Christine Van Geyn told the Toronto Sun Thursday that the executives don’t deserve the bonus after revelations in the auditor’s report. Here’s what she had to say on the issue:
Why are you calling on the Pan Am executives to pay back their bonuses?
“A performance bonus is supposed to be for a job well done. As the auditor general found, they were actually $342 million over budget. The government, and even the auditor general, defended paying these bonuses because they said the games were on-time and Canadians won a record number of medals. Well, I don’t think I’m going to get a bonus just because I showed up for work on time and somebody else did a really good job.”
The government appears to dispute the AG’s finding that the games were not on budget. What is your reaction?
“This is a government that doesn’t know a deficit when they see one. They’ve run nine consecutive deficits. They are on-track to run another deficit based on the financial accountability officer’s projections ... If they don’t know a deficit when they see one, it’s no wonder Ontario is in the fiscal mess that it is today.”
Should we have seen this $342-million cost overrun coming?
“The auditor general said they had their budget increased twice. It’s easy to say you came in under budget if you had your budget increased twice. That’s not the same thing as coming in under budget, that’s an overrun ... It’s not a surprise that these games had a big deficit.”
Pan Am Games mascot Pachi is pictured at the ACC recently during a Toronto Marlies game. (JACK BOLAND, Toronto Sun)
Pan Am execs should return bonuses: CTF | Ontario | News | Toronto Sun
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Thursday, June 09, 2016 07:17 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, June 09, 2016 07:20 PM EDT
TORONTO - Ontario’s privacy watchdog says he will investigate the destruction of hard drives at T02015, including the computer of former Pan Am Games CEO Saad Rafi.
In a statement to the Toronto Sun, Brian Beamish said Thursday he will probe the hard drive disposal by games staff flagged in auditor general Bonnie Lysyk’s report.
The auditor said her value-for-money audit of the games was limited by the destruction. Her staff had requested access to a dozen executive hard drives but found that nine of them had been destroyed during the “wind-up” process after last summer’s event.
“In light of these comments, my office will be investigating to determine whether TO2015 followed appropriate record keeping and record retention practices,” Beamish said. “The investigation report will be made public when it is completed.”
Opposition critics hammered the government Thursday, calling for both Beamish to investigate and for an OPP probe into the destruction of the hard drives.
In a letter to Commissioner Vince Hawkes, NDP MPP Paul Miller asks the OPP to look into the matter.
“I am calling on you to move quickly to take all necessary steps to ensure that all the information required for a possible investigation is not destroyed or deleted,” Miller says. “The outcome of your investigation could hinge on the ability of investigators to seize information in its complete form. I trust that you will act in the best interest of Ontarians.”
Earlier in the day, Progressive Conservative MPP Steve Clark called on Premier Kathleen Wynne to fire Rafi from his job as CEO of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.
“Destroying hard drives before the auditor general sees what’s on them is evidence again of their outright contempt for transparency,” Clark said during question period. “Premier, will you fire Saad Rafi before more documents are deleted and ORPP becomes this province’s next scandal?”
The entire situation is similar to the deletion of emails surrounding the gas plant scandal, Clark said, calling it a “pattern of behaviour and refusal to adhere to proper records-management policies.”
On Wednesday, a value-for-money probe of TO2015 done by Lysyk said the province paid 61% over its original budget commitment of $500 million. In the end, Ontario spent $342 million more on the Pan Am Games than it initially promised.
Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Coteau defended Rafi and repeatedly told reporters that Lysyk herself said there was no reason to suspect wrongdoing in relation to the destruction of the hard drives. The auditor’s office had access to all the documents through a cloud computer server, he said.
“Again, the auditor general was very clear that nothing wrong was done and the process was followed, so I think (Rafi) did a great job,” Coteau said. “It was a very complex operation they’re running. They did an incredible job of delivering the most successful games Ontario and Canada has ever experienced. I was quite happy with the entire process.”
Asked to clarify Thursday, Lysyk confirmed that she do not suspect any wrongdoing in relation to the hard drive destruction. But in a statement to the Sun, she acknowledged that material on the cloud server she was given access to “may not be the full content of a person’s hard drive.”
sjeffords@postmedia.com
Saad Rafi. (Stan Behal/Toronto Sun files)
Privacy watchdog to probe Pan Am Games hard drive destruction | Ontario | News |
Pan Am execs should return bonuses: CTF
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Thursday, June 09, 2016 08:21 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, June 09, 2016 08:25 PM EDT
TORONTO - TO2015 bigwigs paid millions in bonuses for delivering the games on-budget should pay back the incentives after Ontario’s auditor general revealed the event incurred an extra $342 million in costs.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Christine Van Geyn told the Toronto Sun Thursday that the executives don’t deserve the bonus after revelations in the auditor’s report. Here’s what she had to say on the issue:
Why are you calling on the Pan Am executives to pay back their bonuses?
“A performance bonus is supposed to be for a job well done. As the auditor general found, they were actually $342 million over budget. The government, and even the auditor general, defended paying these bonuses because they said the games were on-time and Canadians won a record number of medals. Well, I don’t think I’m going to get a bonus just because I showed up for work on time and somebody else did a really good job.”
The government appears to dispute the AG’s finding that the games were not on budget. What is your reaction?
“This is a government that doesn’t know a deficit when they see one. They’ve run nine consecutive deficits. They are on-track to run another deficit based on the financial accountability officer’s projections ... If they don’t know a deficit when they see one, it’s no wonder Ontario is in the fiscal mess that it is today.”
Should we have seen this $342-million cost overrun coming?
“The auditor general said they had their budget increased twice. It’s easy to say you came in under budget if you had your budget increased twice. That’s not the same thing as coming in under budget, that’s an overrun ... It’s not a surprise that these games had a big deficit.”
Pan Am Games mascot Pachi is pictured at the ACC recently during a Toronto Marlies game. (JACK BOLAND, Toronto Sun)
Pan Am execs should return bonuses: CTF | Ontario | News | Toronto Sun
Wynne says she'll co-operate with privacy watchdog probe
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Friday, June 10, 2016 03:55 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, June 10, 2016 08:11 PM EDT
Premier Kathleen Wynne says her government will work with Ontario’s privacy watchdog as he investigates the destruction of Pan Am Games executives’ hard drives.
Wynne made the pledge Friday, a day after Information and Privacy Commissioner Brian Beamish confirmed he will probe the hard drive disposals which limited the ability of Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk to conduct a value-for-money audit of TO2015. The premier said she believes the hard drives were disposed of by the book.
“We’ll co-operate with the information privacy commissioner as we always have,” Wynne said. “We’re confident, (and) the auditor general has made it clear, that there was no indication of any wrongdoing in terms of the process.”
Wynne said that the Pan Am Games leased computers and all of the information on the machines’ hard drives were uploaded to a cloud server.
“We will work with the information privacy commissioner, having, to the best of our knowledge, followed all of the requirements in terms of retaining all that information in the cloud,” she said.
Earlier this week, Lysyk reported that Ontario spent 61% more than it initially anticipated on the Pan Am Games, amounting to a $342 million overrun on TO2015. She also said that when her staff asked Pan Am to turn over a dozen hard drives they received three.
Nine of the computer drives had been destroyed, including that of games CEO Saad Rafi who now heads up Ontario’s Retirement Pension Plan.
In a statement to the Toronto Sun Thursday, Lysyk confirmed that she does not suspect any wrongdoing in relation to the hard drive destruction. But she said that material available to her staff on the cloud server “may not be the full content of a person’s hard drive.”
sjeffords@postmedia.com
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is photographed in her office in Queen's Park Thursday, June 9, 2016. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
Wynne says she'll co-operate with privacy watchdog probe | Ontario | News | Toro
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Friday, June 10, 2016 03:55 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, June 10, 2016 08:11 PM EDT
Premier Kathleen Wynne says her government will work with Ontario’s privacy watchdog as he investigates the destruction of Pan Am Games executives’ hard drives.
Wynne made the pledge Friday, a day after Information and Privacy Commissioner Brian Beamish confirmed he will probe the hard drive disposals which limited the ability of Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk to conduct a value-for-money audit of TO2015. The premier said she believes the hard drives were disposed of by the book.
“We’ll co-operate with the information privacy commissioner as we always have,” Wynne said. “We’re confident, (and) the auditor general has made it clear, that there was no indication of any wrongdoing in terms of the process.”
Wynne said that the Pan Am Games leased computers and all of the information on the machines’ hard drives were uploaded to a cloud server.
“We will work with the information privacy commissioner, having, to the best of our knowledge, followed all of the requirements in terms of retaining all that information in the cloud,” she said.
Earlier this week, Lysyk reported that Ontario spent 61% more than it initially anticipated on the Pan Am Games, amounting to a $342 million overrun on TO2015. She also said that when her staff asked Pan Am to turn over a dozen hard drives they received three.
Nine of the computer drives had been destroyed, including that of games CEO Saad Rafi who now heads up Ontario’s Retirement Pension Plan.
In a statement to the Toronto Sun Thursday, Lysyk confirmed that she does not suspect any wrongdoing in relation to the hard drive destruction. But she said that material available to her staff on the cloud server “may not be the full content of a person’s hard drive.”
sjeffords@postmedia.com
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is photographed in her office in Queen's Park Thursday, June 9, 2016. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
Wynne says she'll co-operate with privacy watchdog probe | Ontario | News | Toro
Kathleen Wynne having hard time with Pan Am Games hard drives
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Tuesday, June 14, 2016 07:17 AM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, June 14, 2016 08:22 AM EDT
TORONTO - Premier Kathleen Wynne was dogged by questions about the destruction of hard drives belonging to Pan Am Games officials the day she unveiled her new cabinet.
During a press conference at Queen’s Park Monday to showcase the new faces on her executive council, Wynne was peppered with questions about the destroyed computers of nine games executives.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk revealed last week that the hard drives were destroyed.
Wynne insisted that the documents on the hard drives were uploaded to a cloud server and made available to Lysyk’s staff.
“The auditor general has indicated quite clearly that she saw no indication of any wrongdoing,” Wynne insisted. “From the leased computers that were used for the Pan Am Games, that information was uploaded to the cloud ... on top of that there were 300 boxes of information that was delivered to the AG.”
Wynne promised last week that her government would co-operate with a probe into the computer hard drives destruction by Information and Privacy Commissioner Brian Beamish.
Last week, Lysyk reported that Ontario spent 61% more than it initially anticipated on the Pan Am Games, amounting to a $342 million overrun on TO2015. She also said that when her staff asked Pan Am to turn over a dozen hard drives, they received three.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne holds the first cabinet meeting after the announcement of a cabinet shuffle at Queen's Park on June 13 , 2016. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press)
Kathleen Wynne having hard time with Pan Am Games hard drives | Ontario | News |
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Tuesday, June 14, 2016 07:17 AM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, June 14, 2016 08:22 AM EDT
TORONTO - Premier Kathleen Wynne was dogged by questions about the destruction of hard drives belonging to Pan Am Games officials the day she unveiled her new cabinet.
During a press conference at Queen’s Park Monday to showcase the new faces on her executive council, Wynne was peppered with questions about the destroyed computers of nine games executives.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk revealed last week that the hard drives were destroyed.
Wynne insisted that the documents on the hard drives were uploaded to a cloud server and made available to Lysyk’s staff.
“The auditor general has indicated quite clearly that she saw no indication of any wrongdoing,” Wynne insisted. “From the leased computers that were used for the Pan Am Games, that information was uploaded to the cloud ... on top of that there were 300 boxes of information that was delivered to the AG.”
Wynne promised last week that her government would co-operate with a probe into the computer hard drives destruction by Information and Privacy Commissioner Brian Beamish.
Last week, Lysyk reported that Ontario spent 61% more than it initially anticipated on the Pan Am Games, amounting to a $342 million overrun on TO2015. She also said that when her staff asked Pan Am to turn over a dozen hard drives, they received three.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne holds the first cabinet meeting after the announcement of a cabinet shuffle at Queen's Park on June 13 , 2016. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press)
Kathleen Wynne having hard time with Pan Am Games hard drives | Ontario | News |