A federal agency disbanded in 2024 created a web of conflicts with insiders who “made increasingly questionable decisions,” says a federal report. The Privy Council document concluded gross mismanagement at Sustainable Development Technology Canada cost taxpayers more than $150 million.

“Sustainable Development Technology Canada made increasingly questionable decisions,” wrote the Privy Council. It was “an organization where lack of governance and a continuous cycle of executive mismanagement led to serious conflict of interest breaches as well as the gross mismanagement of over $150 million of public funds.”

Parliament created the agency in 2001 to subsidize green research and development projects. It was disbanded last June 4 with the mass resignation of all directors only hours after a federal audit counted 186 conflicts of interest.