There is only one way to get to the bottom of what went on with the Redford government: a full judicial inquiry.

Auditor General Merwan Saher's report of August 7th was extraordinary in its findings, but was clear that its scope was limited only to the premier’s office travel expenses. However, on page two of his report, the AG pointed out that Alison Redford and her office were aided by the negligence of other areas of the government. 

In his own words, Saher said that this was all possible because of “the aura of power around Premier Redford and her office and the perception that the influence of the office should not be questioned. We observed a tendency to work around or ignore rules in order to fulfill requests coming from the premier’s office in ways that avoided leaving the premier with personal responsibility for decisions.”

In short, Premier Redford was all-powerful, and others in her office did the dirty work for her in order to keep her fingerprints off of the evidence. 

Saher continued, “Other areas of government were wary of challenging decisions made in the premier’s office.”

The AG was not mandated to investigate the extent of involvement of those “other areas of government” awestruck by the aura of power that was the premier’s office. 

The premier of Alberta doesn’t book so much as a coffee meeting without someone’s help, let alone hatch and implement an elaborate scheme of falsified flight manifests and flights to PC Party fundraisers under the cover of government business, without any help. 

In short, Redford wasn’t a lone gunman.

The RCMP have been called in to investigate if criminal charges are necessary, but only that. The police are not here to investigate potential ethical breaches – however widespread – but only criminal breaches. Albertans set a higher bar for the behavior of their public officials than the criminal code. Those who abetted these schemes directly and indirectly – as well as those who knew but did nothing – need to be held to account.

Moreover, Premier Dave HancockandFinance Minister Doug Hornerboth stood in the legislature when questioned about specific allegations that government aircraft were used for partisan and personal purposes, and denied them categorically. Those denials were shredded by the Auditor General on pages 26 and 27 of his report. Office staff told the AG that dates of Progressive Conservative Party fundraising dinners are known well in advance, and that official government business would be scheduled around them in order to allow the premier to fly there on the taxpayer’s dime. In several cases, there wasn’t even the pretense of government businesses.

Being charitable, both Horner and Hancock have ‘misled’ Albertans.

This makes clear that we cannot trust the government to provide factual answers via Question Period in the legislature. 

For the last two years, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), opposition parties and the media have exposed scandal after scandal in the premier’s office using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. FOI however is only good for prying the lid off of the dumpster. It takes authorities with the power to subpoena evidence and testimony to dump it out and sort through the trash. 

Without the Gomery Inquiry, Canadians would never have known the extent of corruption that was the sponsorship scandal. Without the Charbonneau Commission, Quebecers would never been able to hold their government to account for collusion and corruption in that province’s construction industry.

“But a judicial inquiry is expensive,” moan the government’s half-hearted defenders.

Most of these defenders are hardly in a position to lecture anyone about prudent spending right now. 

Elections are expensive. Having an auditor general is expensive. Few would question the vital need for both of these democratic and accountability measures.

Money spent on holding those who abused the trust of Alberta taxpayers with so little regard, could not be better spent.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin may have paid the political price for calling Gomery Inquiry when he came to power, but it was the right thing to do after what happened under his predecessor’s watch.

One of the three Progressive Conservative leadership candidates will be in a remarkably similar situation when they become premier in September. If the new premier is to have any hope of convincing Albertans that he and the PC Party are serious about getting to the bottom of who knew what, he will call a full judicial inquiry.

Anything less will only protect those who have wronged Albertans.