OTTAWA — The bill for cleaning up the federal sponsorship scandal is going up again - probably to somewhere between $70 million and $80 million, The Canadian Press has learned.

The boost will come when the commission of inquiry headed by Justice John Gomery submits its proposed budget for the new fiscal year that starts April 1.

Sources say the final figures haven't been nailed down yet, but the $20.4 million allotted for the current year provides a rough idea of what is to come.

"You may expect that something in the order of the same amount will be spent for the next phase," said one commission official who asked not to be named.

"Maybe a little lower."

Inquiry officials have been trying to pare down their latest budget estimate before submitting it to the Privy Council Office and Treasury Board, the two government bodies that must approve Gomery's spending.

But despite efforts to economize, the overall price tag for the commission's two years of work is expected to be well over $30 million.

The "worst case scenario" would see a doubling of the first-year total to around $40 million, said a well-placed source.

In addition, the government has reported another $39 million in expenses spread among four departments - Public Works, Treasury Board, Justice and the Privy Council Office.

That money is "not related to (Gomery's) budget per se, but it is related to Gomery's inquiry as a whole," says Renee David, a spokeswoman for Public Works Minister Scott Brison.

Included are the cost to the federal bureaucracy of assembling millions of pages of documentary evidence, translation services, a variety of other administrative expenses and legal fees for a battalion of lawyers.

Public Works has also figured in its expenses for processing a flood of applications from journalists trying to track the paper trail of the scandal through the Access to Information Act.

"It's all in the same budget," says David. "It's sponsorship-and Gomery-related."
Francois Perreault, a spokesman for the Gomery commission, insists the operating budget for the judge and his staff must be kept separate from the expenses claimed by federal departments.

"It's a question of being accurate," says Perreault. "It's not accurate to just pile up costs over our budget, pretending that it's related to Gomery."

Perreault defends the money spent by the inquiry so far, saying it's "right on target" to meet the projected $20.4 million for fiscal 2004-05.

He won't comment on 2005-06, except to confirm that figures are being dawn up and will be made public "in the forthcoming days."

The comments reflect a growing sensitivity among commission staff, who are wary of any suggestion they're sending good money after bad in their investigation of the scandal.
Ottawa spent $250 million under the sponsorship program, mainly to boost the federal government's profile in Quebec and fight separatism.

Most of the controversy centres on $100 million that went in commissions and fees to Liberal-friendly ad agencies and other middlemen, some of whom did little or no work for their money.
But former prime minister Jean Chretien, in his testimony before Gomery, rejected the idea that every dollar spent on commissions was wasted.

"The impression has been created in the country that $100 million was stolen," said Chretien.
"I'd be very surprised. I have the impression that a lot less money was stolen than it will cost to hold this commission."

So far criminal charges have been laid against four men - Chuck Guite, the civil servant who managed the sponsorship program, and ad executives Jean Brault, Paul Coffin and Jacques Paradis.

All are awaiting trial. The combined total of the frauds alleged against them is a little over $4 million.

There could be more to come, however, since the RCMP is still investigating other ad firms.
Ottawa is also considering civil suits to recover sponsorship money from some agencies. Unconfirmed reports have suggested the first such suits, expected soon, may be for about $10 million.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, who created the Gomery inquiry, has been adamant that it's worth whatever it costs.

"It is a very complex matter that goes back 10 years," Martin said when the $39 million in departmental expenses were made public in early February.

"What's important is that we do get to the bottom of this. Governments must be open, they must be transparent."

The lion's share of the $20.4 million spent by Gomery in his first year went for legal and professional services - about $14.7 million.

That included fees for the commission's team of 14 lawyers, their support staff and forensic accountants to trace the complex flow of sponsorship money.

Those kinds of costs will drop in the second year, after public hearings end in May.
But there will be new costs for another part of Gomery's mandate - research and consultation with academic and administrative experts on the reforms needed to guard against future scandals.

Money will also be needed to draft, print and distribute two reports. One in November will contain Gomery's factual findings about what went wrong and who was responsible, the other in December will outline recommended reforms.

There has been no detailed breakdown of the $39 million in departmental costs, but government spending estimates to be tabled next week may provide some clues.

Part of the money will certainly go to pay the lawyers representing present and former bureaucrats and politicians who have appeared at the inquiry.

It's standard practice for the government to pick up the tab for anyone facing legal questions arising from official duties.

That means Public Works is paying for counsel for Guite, a number of other bureaucrats, and former minister Alfonso Gagliano.

Privy Council is paying for lawyers for Chretien and his former chief of staff Jean Pelletier.

The Justice Department has been sending its own staff, as well as outside counsel, to look after the legal interests of the Martin government at the inquiry.