Minister resigns over grant to Ontario association

Mike Colle, Ontario's minister for citizenship and immigration, resigned last week in the wake of a report which slammed him for his handling of a Can$1 million grant to the Ontario Cricket Association (OCA).

Colle was accused of making a series of grants to local organisations without going through the correct procedures.

"I am not very privy to what transpired between the minister and the previous board of OCA," Mike Kendall, the president of the association, told rediff.com. "What I heard was that we asked for Can$150,000 for infrastructure improvement, like improving the pitch, and other facilities. But members of the previous board had also spoken with the minister about various needs that put together amounted to several million dollars to take cricket in Ontario to the next level.

"Had someone put some figures on paper, it would have been different, but that, as far as I know, didn't happen. But the fact is Colle understands cricket. He understands that without the government help we can't go to the next level and so he released that money." The OCA has already spent Can$250,000 of the grant with the rest invested in the bank for future programmes.

The report into the grants confirmed that the OCA had only requested Can$150,000.