It’s been said that “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” By that standard, the Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), more commonly known as the green slush fund), is a failure. No one in the Liberal government or the federal bureaucracy even admits to knowing about the widespread misspending of taxpayer dollars – nearly $1 billion – nor the handing out of rich contracts to friends of the fund’s directors and the directors themselves.

The most recent example of this convenient amnesia came Monday when a former Industry Department deputy minister, who was in charge when most of the irregularities occurred, insisted it wasn’t his responsibility to police the ethics of boards operating under his department’s authority.

John Knubley, who retired as deputy minister in 2019, told the Commons public accounts committee it wasn’t his job to enforce ethics, but rather to ensure boards and commissions that fell under Industry Canada would “develop, refine and........

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