The cost of an $8 million solar-powered warehouse at Rideau Hall was buried in a Crown corporation’s budget and never scrutinized by the Department of Public Works, MPs were told yesterday. Members of the public accounts committee expressed astonishment.

“There is no accountability,” said Conservative MP Jake Stewart (Miramichi-Grand Lake, N.B.). “I don’t feel like there is any accountability for the $8 million barn.”

Expenses totaling $8,039,853 were disclosed October 18 through Access To Information by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. MP Stewart complained the building was equipped with an elevator though “it is clearly a one-storey building” and fibre optic cable.