UCP CAUCUS TRIES TO SHUT DOWN PUBLIC ACCOUNTS WHILE NDP GETS ANSWERS ON GOVERNMENT’S $1.6 BILLION BUDGET SCANDAL

EDMONTON - Alberta’s NDP learned more details about the scathing Auditor General Report November 2020 in which the Auditor General caught $1.6 billion dollars in accounting errors.

In the meeting, the Auditor General explained that despite Jason Kenney’s assurances to the opposite, $100 million was committed to the Government’s secretive Keystone XL deal highlighting that the Government continuously misrepresented the facts about its own deal. The Auditor General also made it clear that the disastrous War Room lacked any type of proper documentation on using sole-source contracts despite spending 65% of its contracting budget on them.

“Today’s meeting of Public Account is just a further indictment of Jason Kenney’s fiscal mismanagement. We learned that the Government misled Albertans and important conflict-of-interest safeguards were ignored,” said Deron Bilous NDP Economic Development Critic. “This further undermines the Government’s credibility on managing Alberta’s finances and acting in the interest of Albertans”. 

During the meeting, the UCP Caucus put forward a motion that, if passed, would automatically cancel meetings of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts when the legislature assembly sits past 11:30 in the evening. The move would give the Government a mechanism to shut down the opposition’s ability to question the Auditor General and Government officials on behalf of Albertans. 

“The Auditor General’s report proves that Jason Kenney and the UCP Government cannot be trusted to manage the province and Alberta’s finances without proper oversight. We are ready to show up and do the work Albertans sent us here to do and we can’t let the government off the hook every time they keep MLAs in the legislature until midnight,” said Bilous. 

The motion was not voted on as the allotted time for the Standing Committee on Public Accounts elapsed.