• Premier Redford fulfills leadership promise to the CTF

EDMONTON, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is praising the Redford government’s decision to put online all expense claims and receipts for MLAs, cabinet ministers, senior staff and executives.

“Ms. Redford committed to the CTF during the PC leadership race that if she was elected leader and premier, she would follow the City of Toronto’s lead and require all MLAs and cabinet to put their itemized expenses, including receipts, online. She’s gone even further today, and we couldn’t be more pleased,” said CTF-Alberta director Scott Hennig. “We’ve always maintained that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and you can have all the rules you want, but nothing beats complete transparency.”

The CTF reiterated its call for full online disclosure of expenses during an August meeting with Don Scott, Associate Minister of Accountability, Transparency and Transformation, who had been tasked with coming up with a new expense disclosure policy.

“Mr. Scott has been handed a pile of tasks in the short time since he’s been elected. He’s clearly succeeded on this one, and we’re looking forward to continued expansion of transparency under his associate ministry,” continued Hennig.

In light of recent expense scandals, including the CTF’s recent revelations of inappropriate expenses at the University of Calgary, the CTF is hopeful that other public bodies will follow suit and adopt similar expense disclosure guidelines.

“Universities, school boards, health authorities and other boards and commissions that spend taxpayer money might want to follow suit, otherwise they are going to start facing increased scrutiny on their expenses,” said Hennig.

The CTF is also hoping the opposition caucuses will also agree to the same guidelines so that all 87 MLAs are disclosing their expenses on the same system.