The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) announced today it lost an appeal with the Provincial Ombudsman over Manitoba Hydro’s refusal to disclose details for $223,531,822.71 worth of expenses on legal and consulting costs for northern Manitoba dams.

The expenses were racked up by northern Manitoba reserves as part of negotiations over the construction of new hydro dams and the Bipole III line. The CTF began investigating this issue several years ago after whistleblowers began alleging some of the funds had been misspent on payoffs and door prizes for public meetings such as Xbox’s, big screen TVs and freezers.

“It is absurd for the government to keep nearly a quarter of a billion dollars worth of expenses hidden from the public,” said CTF Prairie Director Colin Craig. “It’s not like we’re asking for details on nuclear weapons, we just want to see the bills supposedly for lawyers and consultants hired by aboriginal reserves for hydro dam negotiations.”

“We brought this problem to the NDP’s attention years ago, but they’ve done nothing about it,” added Craig. “It’s time for Brian Pallister and Jon Gerrard to indicate what their parties would do differently.”

In September, 2012 the CTF announced it had filed an appeal with the provincial Ombudsman over Hydro’s refusal to disclose how the $223,531,822.71 had been spent on legal and consulting costs by northern Manitoba reserves. The reserves in turn hand the bills over to Manitoba Hydro for payment.

A recent Ombudsman ruling agreed with Hydro that the details could be “harmful to a third party’s business interests” and that “disclosure could harm relations between the public body and the council of a band as defined by the Indian Act.”

To view the Ombudsman’s report, click here.