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OTTAWA — The Harper government spent more than $180,000 last year to run the office of a corporate social responsibility counsellor for the Canadian mining industry — even though there was no counsellor.

The government says it cost $181,600 to operate the office from October 2013 to October 2014.

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However, the position of counsellor was vacant all that time and remains so to this day.

Liberal MP John McKay, who posed a House of Commons order paper question about the cost of running the office, says the government’s answer is not surprising, since it was never serious about the counsellor’s role in the first place.

The government created the position of Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor in 2009.

The counsellor was supposed to investigate Canadian mining companies alleged to have abused human rights or inflicted environmental damage while operating abroad.