Undermining Accountability
Mr. Speaker, these are dark days for accountability and transparency.
It’s incredibly sad that a Premier who once claimed to believe in those ideals has flip-flopped so completely, serving his own personal political agenda at the expense of truth, clarity, openness and fairness to the people of Alberta. The actions of his administration have served to draw a dark curtain over government, hiding the actions of an administration that has lost the trust of Albertans.
Yesterday the Auditor General delivered his latest report – a report the Premier’s administration tried to bury with a good-news story about distracted driving legislation.
The Tories have been trying to silence the Auditor General for months; they’ve ignored hundreds of recommendations, publicly chastised the AG for speaking out, restricted the office’s budget causing the deferment or cancellation of a number of important audits – including occupational health and safety and water quality – and distributed in this House a paper by top Tory Ron Hicks that calls on the government to severely curb the powers of the Auditor General.
Yesterday the Deputy Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, a Tory, was granted veto power over the Chair’s actions – neutering the entire purpose of that committee, whose mandate is to oversee government spending and ensure that public dollars are being used responsibly and in the public interest. Of course the Chair is a Liberal who happens to be very good at digging up dirt on the Tories, the Honourable Member for Edmonton-Gold Bar. No wonder the Premier’s lapdogs are trying to muzzle him.
Yesterday in Question Period the Premier claimed not to know what went on in Public Accounts, a claim I find, frankly, ridiculous. I believe that Tory members of the Public Accounts Committee were directed by the Premier to give the Deputy Chair his new veto power in a deliberate attempt to silence a prominent source of aggravation to the ruling party. Naturally our call for an emergency debate was dismissed, as usual.
Mr. Speaker, these third-world, banana republic tactics are a farce. They shame Alberta. Even former Tory MP John Williams once called this administration’s restrictions on the Public Accounts Committee “shocking” – and that was before this latest move.
I’d like to close by thanking the Alberta bloggers who are following this story. They are proving themselves to be a valuable addition to the fourth estate, showing as always that individual citizens of good conscience are the best defenders of truth, accountability and democracy.