TORONTO - National Post CEO Paul Godfrey is set to oversee the troubled Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., a government official said Friday.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has nominated Godfrey, a well-known Progressive Conservative, as chairman of the corporation that has weathered scandals over insider wins and executive expenses in recent years.
"Mr. Godfrey brings a wealth of political experience and a proven track record as one of Canada's top business leaders," the official, who declined to be named, said.
"Minister Duncan believes that his guidance and oversight will help ensure that the OLG manages its operations as effectively and efficiently as possible."
Godfrey is also the former president of the Toronto Sun and headed the Toronto Blue Jays until he stepped down last year.
It is was not immediately clear Friday if the position would require Godfrey to give up any of his current duties, although former chairman Michael Gough did the job on a part-time basis.
The nomination is still subject to a review by the legislature's standing committee on government agencies, and Godfrey wasn't immediately available for comment.
The OLG has been overseen by bureaucrats since August, when the corporation's former chair resigned after Duncan fired chief executive Kelly McDougald.
When it fired McDougald, the Liberal government released thousands of pages of what it called unacceptable expenses filed by lottery corporation executives.
McDougald has since launched an $8.4-million wrongful dismissal suit against OLG, the Crown and Duncan. McDougald claims she was fired because she refused make public scapegoats of other executives as the government tried to contain another expense scandal at the agency tasked with bringing health records online.
OLG has been under fire for years, with troubles ranging from questionable insider wins to botched scratch-and-win tickets and malfunctioning slot machines.
In March, OLG executives were lambasted by then-energy minister George Smitherman for buying foreign cars as casino prizes at a time when thousands of Ontario auto workers were losing their jobs.
In a scathing 2007 report, Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin accused unscrupulous retailers of collecting tens of millions of dollars in "dishonest" winnings -- and the lottery corporation of letting them get away with it. Marin had given the agency until early September to report back to him about cleaning up its act.
He imposed the deadline after a sweeping forensic audit in February revealed lottery insiders in Ontario won prizes totalling $198 million over the past 13 years.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak lauded Godfrey's political and business experience, and said he "will need all of those skills to clean up the mess Dalton McGuinty has made of the OLG."
