Say it isn’t so Jake !!
Christina Blizzard, Queen’s Park columnist, interviewed the Honourable Jake Epp, Chairman of Ontario Power Generation and provided the following account of their meeting:
Blizzard – “First off, what amounts to an outrageous abuse of ratepayers and taxpayers did he want to apologize them at a time when people can barely pay their bills.”
Epp – “I think first of all you should define ‘outrageous’ and I would be glad to answer it.”
Blizzard said she was gobsmacked by his cavalier reply.
I was even more so.
Epp, I thought was a quintessential Tory.
He was a minister in Joe Clark’s ill fated government in 1979 and served as Minister in Mulroney’s Governments from 1984 to 2003.
As such, he is entitled to use the pre-fix Honourable.
But little honour can be found in his response to Blizzard.
I am embarrassed to say that it was only with last week’s release of the Ontario Auditor General’s Report that I discovered Epp was the Chairman of the Board and moreover, has held that post since 2004 having been appointed by the infamous Dalton McGuinty.
Had anyone informally told me that Epp was Chair – I would have thought them wrong since I would have trouble envisaging someone with Epp’s credentials and reputation within the Tory Party – taking on such a corrupt mess.
Had I been aware from the start – i.e. back in 2004 that he was Chair – I would have still been surprised but would have given him the benefit of the doubt thinking that he had taken the job on to clean things up.
But 10 years have gone by under his stewardship and things have only gotten worse.
I used to work for a chap who later became Epp’s Chief of Staff and he waxed eloquent on many occasions about what a great guy Jake Epp was. A True Conservative, who despised waste and big government.
If an honourable man like Jake Epp can get wrapped up in such a mess … I guess anyone can.
Pity.
As I see it …
‘K.D. Galagher’
