OTTAWA—Newly released documents suggest Conservative cabinet ministers were given the power to directly approve infrastructure projects submitted to the cabinet by individual MPs.

The Star obtained documents from the Town of Huntsville using freedom-of-information legislation about Vern Freedlander, a Toronto-based media consultant who helped Mayor Claude Doughty champion a $16.3 million G8 Summit legacy project after then industry minister Tony Clement recommended him for the job.

The documents show that Freedlander — who worked more than two decades at CTV News and Global Television before becoming vice-president of production at X2O Media Inc. — was primarily tasked with helping Doughty convince the federal government to locate the 2010 G8 Summit’s International Media Centre (IMC) in Huntsville and cover 83 per cent of the cost.

The media centre ended up being located in Toronto and Freedlander did not respond to an email or telephone message from the Star on Monday.

An email dated Dec. 29, 2008, has Freedlander detailing a conversation with Environment Minister Peter Kent, his former broadcast colleague, who at that time was minister of state for the Americas.

His written recollection of the conversation suggests that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and John Baird, who was then minister of transport, were approving infrastructure funding applications submitted to them by their Conservative caucus colleagues.

“(Kent) told me he will whole-heartedly (sic) support the Huntsville IMC at cabinet and wanted to make sure we pass along our pitch to Tony Clement ASAP,” says the email addressed to Doughty and copied to two other senior municipal officials.

“Peter tells me that right now MPs are being asked to provide infrastructure projects to cabinet for direct approvals by Baird and Flaherty. They earlier shovels get in the ground the better.”

After initially declining to comment, a spokeswoman for Kent later flat-out denied the conversation ever took place.

“I can tell you that minister Kent had nothing to do with the IMC and that conversation never happened,” Melissa Lantsman said Monday.

The auditor general released a scathing report in June accusing the Conservative government of misleading Parliament on the purpose of the $45.7 million G8 Legacy Infrastructure Fund that was divvied up between 32 projects in the Muskoka area hand-picked by Clement (the MP for Parry Sound—Muskoka), Doughty and a local businessman.

This new email raises fresh questions about the legacy fund, as it makes no mention of a bureaucratic approvals process and came about while Parliament was prorogued following the 2008 federal election.

A spokesman for Baird, who is now foreign affairs minister, emailed a statement on Monday saying the government considers the case closed.

“Our government accepts the auditor general’s recommendations and will improve the process for the future,” wrote Joseph Lavoie.

Flaherty spokesman Chisholm Pothier said Freedlander must have misspoken, because the finance minister was “not part of the process.”

Jennifer Gearey, a spokeswoman for Treasury Board President Clement, did not comment.

The Town of Huntsville paid Freedlander a monthly retainer of $1,500 for eight hours of work per month to craft talking points for Doughty from December 2008 to September 2009, but it remains unclear how much work he did in exchange for that $187.50 per hour.

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Freedlander billed Huntsville a total of $16,588.51 over that period, including the monthly retainer and an executive summary of the Town of Huntsville G8 legacy project lists Freedlander as an “external team member.”

The documents released to the Star — which are supposed to be all the records regarding Freedlander and the G8 Summit the municipality has in its files — include only a two-page talking-points memo about the Huntsville media centre, an email setting up a telephone call to discuss two jumbo screens for the media centre, another email that has Freedlander introducing a contact who builds scoreboard systems for Ontario arenas, and two more with Freedlander asking for the email address of someone at the foreign affairs department.

The arrangement with Freedlander was cancelled Oct. 5, 2009. John Finley, the Huntsville economic development and grants officer, did not respond to questions about the documents and Doughty did not return a telephone message Monday.