1992 — A LOOK BACK — Big tab for Martel inquiry

Government documents have shown that the 2-month inquiry this year into statements by Ontario’s Northern Development and Mines Minister Shelley Martel over a Sudbury doctor’s billing practices cost Ontario taxpayers almost $420,000.

It was reported that lawyers gobbled up about 80% of costs related to the inquiry, which concluded April 15.

Martel, a rising star within the provincial New Democratic Party, became the sixth minister in five years to hold the mines portfolio following a cabinet shuffle in August, 1991.

Since becoming mines minister, Martel has initiated changes to the Ontario Mineral Incentive Program (OMIP), making all qualified exploration programs in northern Ontario eligible for a grant equal to 50% of expenses to a maximum of $300,000.

The minister also helped to engineer the $95-million Northern Ontario Development Agreement, funded equally with the federal government, of which $30 million was allocated to the mining industry.

The inquiry was set up to investigate allegations that Martel divulged confidential information about a Sudbury doctor’s health insurance billing practices at a Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum function in Thunder Bay, Ont., on Dec. 5, 1991. Martel later told the legislature that she lied about seeing the file and apologized. Martel retained her cabinet post following the issue of two reports by the inquiry, one by government MPPs exonerating her and the other by opposition MPPs condemning her.