NDP Leader Howard Hampton today welcomed an Auditor General investigation into Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal slush fund – and urged McGuinty’s beleaguered Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to step aside until the investigation is complete.

“After all the dithering, delaying and deflection, it’s about time Dalton McGuinty brought in the Auditor General to investigate the Liberal slush fund. There is a huge lack of fairness, transparency and accountability in the way the McGuinty government handed out this money and I’m glad the Auditor General will finally have the chance to get to the bottom of all this,” Hampton said.

“What we need now to ensure the Auditor General can do his work is for Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle to step aside until the investigation is complete,” he said.

At issue is the fairness of the Ontario government’s year-end grant program for cultural groups. Over the last two years, most cultural organizations serving immigrants have been denied a chance to apply for millions of dollars in funding. That’s because there was no application process, no criteria, no transparency and no accountability.

“Multicultural organizations deserve fairness in accessing government grants and the people of Ontario deserve an explanation in how these year end grants were distributed. Hopefully an investigation by the Auditor General will get to the bottom of this mess – and hopefully the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration will step aside to allow that to happen,” said Hampton