Whistleblower on Embattled Green Fund Says He’s Vindicated, Deplores Lack of Accountability

The man who blew the whistle on a culture of conflict of interest at the federal green fund says he feels vindicated after an auditor general report confirmed his information, yet he criticized the lack of accountability in the affair so far.
The auditor general sampled a portion of projects supported by SDTC, a federal arms-length foundation supporting green technologies companies, and found numerous instances of board members allocating themselves money.
“The release of the auditor general’s report in June concluded a two-year effort I initiated to expose how SDTC’s idealistic mission was co-opted by a group of corrupt executives, board members, and insiders within the clean tech ecosystem,” said the whistleblower, who was making his second appearance before a committee.
After Auditor General Karen Hogan released her report, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, whose department oversees the fund, said SDTC projects would be moved under the National Research Council.
The whistleblower said the auditor’s report had “conclusively validated and vindicated every single one of the issues I initially raised.” He said Champagne’s announcement to essentially dissolve SDTC was a “clear indication of the severity of the misconduct.”
The whistleblower remarked that the minister had reacted slowly even though he knew of the allegations in early 2023. He also accused Champagne of misleading MPs about when he had known about the allegations, and of steering the recommendations in a fact-finding review of the allegations conducted by external firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.
The government announced in October 2023 it was suspending funding to SDTC projects based on the review’s findings.
“As soon as allegations were brought forward, my Department acted swiftly to address the situation,” said Champagne in the June statement.
“He assured me that he took this situation seriously and guaranteed that he would facilitate contact with the appropriate people in the federal government and the auditor general’s office,” said the whistleblower, who alleged that Chahal subsequently refused to engage with him.
The Epoch Times reached out to Chahal for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.
The whistleblower said he then began to search for another entity to report to, including the ethics commissioner and eventually the auditor general.
Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner legal counsel Michael Aquilino told the industry committee on Sept. 16 that Verschuren had breached the Conflict of Interest Act 24 times.
Verschuren told the committee she accepted the ethics commissioner’s findings but said she had “acted in good faith, on legal advice, and established board practices that predated my tenure.”
Conservative MPs have been leading the charge around the SDTC issue, calling it a Liberal “slush fund,” but MPs from other parties have also been increasingly critical.
The RCMP and the auditor general have not flagged any criminality allegations over the issue.