EDMONTON, AB: In the wake of the Alberta Health Services expense scandal, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is reminding Premier Redford of her yet to be fulfilled commitment to the CTF to put MLA and cabinet expenses online.
Last September the CTF surveyed PC leadership contestants asking them a series of questions relating to spending, saving, taxes and democratic/transparency reform. One of the questions was: “As premier will you require all MLA and ministerial expenses (including receipts) be itemized and posted on-line (as has been done in the City of Toronto)?”
Alison Redford’s response was: “Yes. Greater transparency in government is needed and Albertans have the right to know how MLAs are spending their tax dollars.”
“We gave Ms. Redford an ‘A’ for that answer, as she was bang on that Albertans have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent,” said CTF-Alberta Director Scott Hennig. “It’s now time for Premier Redford to follow through on her commitment and start putting MLA and cabinet expenses online.”
The CTF is also calling on the Redford government to follow the lead of Alberta Health Services, the Auditor General’s Office, the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the federal government and require that all expenses incurred by senior bureaucrats also be pro-actively disclosed online.
“The federal government figured out how to do this eight years ago, so it shouldn’t be tough for the province to follow suit and start putting itemized expenses online for the public to see,” continued Hennig. “And they should go even further and follow the lead of the City of Toronto and put the receipts online too. If there’s nothing to hide, why bother keeping the receipts under wraps?”
Just yesterday, an all-party committee of the British Columbia Legislature announced they would be putting quarterly reports of MLA expenses online, following a scathing Auditor General’s report and a long-fought CTF-led campaign.
“We shouldn’t have to wait for another scandal to break to get the transparency Albertans deserve,” concluded Hennig.
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