A former Parti Quebecois cabinet minister has been appointed to lead an inquiry into polling contracts awarded by the previous Liberal government.
Daniel Paille will report to Public Works Minister Michael Fortier for a term of six months at a pricetag estimated to to be under $1 million.
"We wanted an inquiry, somebody to look at this so we could determine what took place," Fortier, an unelected senator, said Wednesday. He offered no evidence of any Liberal wrongdoing.
The Liberals claim the exercise is a taxpayer-funded smear job.
"To ask a former separatist minister to do that is clearly an insult. We have an auditor general. It is her role to do that," Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said.
The auditor general has previously looked at polling contracts and found no wrongdoing, although she did note in testimony before a parliamentary committee that Earnscliffe Research -- a firm close to former prime minister Paul Martin -- had provided verbal, undocumented advice on budget-making between 1999 and 2002. Martin was finance minister in that period.
Fortier didn't condemn government spending on polling.
"Public opinion research in an important tool that allows us to better understand the needs and expectations of Canadians to deliver appropriate policies, programs and services," Fortier said in a written statement.
"Questions have been raised about how the previous government used this research tool and the Independent Advisor will ensure that public opinion research practices are open, transparent, and fair, as well as provide value for Canadian taxpayers."
When asked during the news conference if he was still a separatist, Paille -- a finance professor at at Montreal's Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales -- declined comment.
"I pay taxes in Canada. I use my Canadian passport and this is a private question," he said, adding, "I have 30 years' experience. I have a reputation, and I don't want to lose it."
Liberal and NDP MPs said Paille is in a conflict of interest because he will get access to confidential opinion research commissioned during the 1995 referendum when he was campaigning to break up Canada.
"So they appointed a friend of (former PQ leader) Jacques Parizeau -- somebody who hates federalists, who hates Liberals," said Quebec Liberal MP Denis Coderre.
Added NDP MP Paul Dewar: "The person being appointed here has questionable credentials. We have the back-room, back-door process still alive and well. That's exactly the problem with the previous government."
Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief, said Conservative insiders told him that Fortier made the appointment on his own, without Prime Minister Stephen Harper's approval.
But they won't say if Stephen Harper will cancel this controversial appointment.
Election promise
The appointment will fulfill a Conservative election vow to investigate polling contracts based on the finding of a 2004 report by Auditor-General Sheila Fraser.
Paille didn't appear to be familiar with her name: "Maybe the first call I will make to the Auditor General -- Mrs., Mrs., ah, Fraser."
Paille's mandate is to review documents over the period between 1990 to March 31, 2003 -- spanning the final years of the Mulroney government through Jean Chretien's entire tenure.
The review will examine public opinion research contract files; program files and records; public opinion research reports; reviews of public opinion research practices and management carried out by central agencies and departments; and reports of the Auditor General that have been tabled in Parliament.
Paille will then recommend whether there should be a judicial inquiry, along the lines of the Gomery commission into the sponsorship scandal.
With a report from CTV's Robert Fife
