Team-building with Lego? Property tax agency MPAC slammed for ‘extravagant’ meeting, blocks included

To the people of Vaughan who gave the McGuinty Liberals a mandate.

Have you heard the latest? The Ontario agency in charge of property tax assessments (MPAC) for homeowners is under fire for holding an “extravagant” Toronto convention for hundreds of employees — with Lego in their rooms for team-building exercises. It is the latest the latest Liberal spending scandal to cost taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars as the province fights a $14.8 billion deficit.

Finance minister Dwight Duncan, in a typical grasp on the obvious, said: “It’s a boneheaded thing to do,” and then used the usual excuse.

“We have no authority over it,” he added, calling the convention “an inappropriate use of municipal tax dollars” and urging local officials throughout the province to express their displeasure to MPAC.

The Conservatives weren’t about to let Duncan off the hook on that, pointing out that he as finance minister appoints the 15-member board of directors of the agency that was the subject of a scathing report several years ago by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin.

“You don’t have a Lego to stand on,” Tory MPP John Yakabuski (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke) shot at Duncan, prompting politicians of all stripes to break into laughter.

You get what you vote for!!