accountability

Thursday July 19, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 19, 2018

Doug Ford’s PCs launching inquiry into previous Liberal government’s spending

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is vowing to “clean up” the government’s finances, in part by launching an inquiry into the previous Liberal regime’s spending.

April 27, 2018

The PCs have created an Independent Financial Commission of Inquiry to probe Ontario’s past spending and accounting practices. The commission will be led by former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell, as well as Al Rosen, a forensic accountant, and Michael Horgan, a consultant with decades of public service experience.

“The commission will give you the answers about what went wrong,” Ford told reporters, from behind a podium bearing the slogan “Restoring trust.”

The commission’s findings will be made public, and Ford said the results should provide some advice about how to fix the situation.

December 11, 2014

“We go in there, we’re going to find additional waste, we’re going to find areas that we can drive efficiencies,” he said.

The premier is pledging that the inquiry would build on the work of the province’s auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, who has been critical of government accounting standards that she said understate its deficits by billions.

“The office of the auditor general appreciates the government’s intent as part of the financial commission of inquiry to address the accounting practices we have previously expressed concerns about,”  Lysyk said in a statement. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Tuesday May 3, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday May 3, 2016 Mike Duffy makes quiet return to Parliament Hill Mike Duffy returned to Parliament Hill on Monday, a little more than a week after a court dismissed all of the 31 charges against him related to his Senate expenses. The P.E.I. senator casually strolled past waiting reporters without saying anything, and entered Centre Block through the front doors that lead to the Senate chamber. He was similarly silent when he later came upon reporters outside his third-floor office. The Senate is not sitting Monday, but Duffy could return to the Upper Chamber when business resumes on Tuesday. He has not appeared in the Senate since 2013, when he addressed the controversy around his expenses shortly before senators voted to suspend him without pay. That suspension ended with last year's election call. And with last month's verdict, Duffy was cleared to return to the job to which he was appointed in 2008. Senior Conservative senators have already said that they will fight any effort by Duffy to collect that back pay saying the suspension process was separate from the criminal trial proceedings. "There is no appetite among senators to revisit this. It brings back some very tumultuous times," Conservative Senator Leo Housakos, chair of the internal economy committee, told CBC News last week. Claude Carignan, the leader of the Conservative opposition in the Senate, added Monday that he is staunchly opposed to cutting a cheque to Duffy. "I completely disagree with [back pay for Duffy]. If he asks for that I will disapprove because that was in fact a completely different situation. He was suspended on a disciplinary sanction for negligence in the management of his office. His criminal charges were something completely different," he said. James Cowan, the leader of the Senate Liberals, added that it would be up to Duffy to make his case to fellow senators. "Any senator is entitled to bring anything

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 3, 2016

Mike Duffy makes quiet return to Parliament Hill

Mike Duffy returned to Parliament Hill on Monday, a little more than a week after a court dismissed all of the 31 charges against him related to his Senate expenses.

The P.E.I. senator casually strolled past waiting reporters without saying anything, and entered Centre Block through the front doors that lead to the Senate chamber. He was similarly silent when he later came upon reporters outside his third-floor office.

The Senate is not sitting Monday, but Duffy could return to the Upper Chamber when business resumes on Tuesday. He has not appeared in the Senate since 2013, when he addressed the controversy around his expenses shortly before senators voted to suspend him without pay.

That suspension ended with last year’s election call. And with last month’s verdict, Duffy was cleared to return to the job to which he was appointed in 2008.

Senior Conservative senators have already said that they will fight any effort by Duffy to collect that back pay saying the suspension process was separate from the criminal trial proceedings.

“There is no appetite among senators to revisit this. It brings back some very tumultuous times,” Conservative Senator Leo Housakos, chair of the internal economy committee, told CBC News last week.

Claude Carignan, the leader of the Conservative opposition in the Senate, added Monday that he is staunchly opposed to cutting a cheque to Duffy.

“I completely disagree with [back pay for Duffy]. If he asks for that I will disapprove because that was in fact a completely different situation. He was suspended on a disciplinary sanction for negligence in the management of his office. His criminal charges were something completely different,” he said.

James Cowan, the leader of the Senate Liberals, added that it would be up to Duffy to make his case to fellow senators.

“Any senator is entitled to bring anything before the Senate,” Cowan said outside the chamber. “I think the proper thing is to let Senator Duffy come back and make his own decision about how he should behave and deal with that situation, and then we’ll deal with it. But it’s not up to us, it’s up to him.” (Source: CBC News)

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Saturday, May 23, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, May 23, 2015

Wynne responds to Hydro One criticism: There will be oversight, she says

Ontario’s premier has defended the partial sale of Hydro One, insisting there will be oversight of the electricity utility after the government sells off up to 60 per cent of the operation.

Kathleen Wynne was responding to criticism from several provincial oversight agencies that the public would continue to own much of the utility, but not get to exercise much scrutiny over it.

Eight officers of the provincial legislature, in a public letter last week, bemoaned that the utility would become exempt from things like government audits, disclosure-of-lobbying rules and Access to Information law.

Wynne was asked about that letter in an interview during a trip to Washington, where she will speak at a public forum today after meeting with members of Congress and the Obama administration.

Wynne said companies have their own oversight models.

She suggested that will be the case when the province proceeds with the sale of 60 per cent of Hydro One, starting with an initial public offering of 15 per cent.

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“The fact is that private companies have their own oversight mechanisms,” Wynne told The Canadian Press.

“There are rules around oversight for publicly traded or private companies. And on top of that we’re going to put a Hydro ombudsman in place. We’re building in some oversight. So I actually think the oversight will be there.”

She said the government wants to create “a great Canadian company” that will provide quality service, with price controls still in place on electricity rates, but sell part of the utility to raise revenue for new infrastructure. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Kathleen Wynne to launch ‘open government’ push to boost transparency

Premier Kathleen Wynne wants to fling open the doors of government.

Dogged by the lingering controversy over the Liberals’ shadowy cancellation of two gas plants at a cost of up $1.1 billion, Wynne is pushing for greater transparency at Queen’s Park.

“Together, let’s do government differently,” the premier writes in an unusual open letter to Ontarians to be released Monday.

“We need to make information easier to find, understand and use, so that we can design services that deliver better results to the people of Ontario. We must also unlock public data so that you can help us solve problems and find new ways of doing things.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Can't Wynne on spelling CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Ontario Premier Kathleen Can’t Wynne on spelling
CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“I believe that government data belongs to the people of Ontario and so we will make government data open by default, limiting access only to safeguard privacy, security and confidentiality.”

To that end, the premier will turn to a top academic, a respected former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, business leaders, and a bevy of experts on “open government” to improve public access to the inner workings of the province.

Wynne wants her administration to “open up more data and information” so Ontarians can “engage in the decision-making process and the development of policy.”

She hopes that along with making government more accountable, the availability of more data will “boost innovation and economic productivity.”

“By putting data online for fresh analysis, we can spark innovative discoveries that could help grow our economy and improve peoples’ lives,” she writes in her letter. (Source: Toronto Star)

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Wednesday, May 1, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Canada can’t account for $3.1B in anti-terror funding, AG finds

The federal government needs to do better at tracking and evaluating some of its program spending to ensure taxpayer dollars are being well-spent, Auditor General Michael Ferguson found in his spring report released today, and one of the most striking examples is that it can’t account for $3.1 billion in anti-terrorism funding.

The lack of information on spending and on results achieved for money spent is a common theme throughout Ferguson’s report, which includes 11 chapters in total.

In his audit of the Public Security and Anti-Terrorism (PSAT) Initiative, Ferguson suggested there should have been a government-wide review of spending by 35 departments and of the results for the program that was funded between 2001 and 2009.

He found that departments reported spending $9.8 billion of the $12.9 billion allocated for security and anti-terrorism measures under the program but he couldn’t determine where the other $3.1 billion went. The Treasury Board had no clear answers for him.

Ferguson said he’s not concerned the money is missing, it’s the information about it that can’t be nailed down.

“It’s a matter of missing that last link in putting that information together,” he said at a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday morning. If the money was reallocated from the anti-terrorism program to another program, there should have been approval for that, he added.

“We don’t have enough information to say whether that happened,” he said.

The NDP jumped on the accounting gap as a sign the Conservatives can’t manage the public purse. (Source: CBC News)