The bill will make it possible for the Progressive Conservatives to fire the province’s Auditor-General without cause, a political science professor says
government has taken a giant step backward in accountability and transparency with the introduction this week of a contentious omnibus bill, political observers and access to information experts say.Progressive Conservatives to fire the province’s Auditor-General without cause, effectively eliminating the independence of a key officer of the legislature, said David Johnson, a professor of political science at Cape Breton University.“There’s a desire from the premier to control the message ….
“The ability to remove the Auditor-General without cause, combined with the ability to control our public reporting, impacts the independence, integrity and objectivity of the office,” Adair told a news conference. “These changes could mean any report the government doesn’t like wouldn’t be made public.”
Four Nova Scotia politicians were charged in February 2011 after Lapointe asked the RCMP to investigate. All four later pleaded guilty to various charges, and the legislature’s spending and disclosure rules were overhauled. On another front, the Houston government intends to use its majority to change the province’s freedom of information law to make it possible for the heads of public bodies to dismiss information requests for being frivolous, excessively broad or interfering with operations.
Polsky said Nova Scotia is copying the more restrictive rules in Alberta. “This is a monkey see, monkey do legislative landscape,” she said. “Whether it’s diminishing the public’s access to information … or diminishing the right to privacy … Once one jurisdiction manages to get it passed into law, other jurisdictions point and say, ’You see, they can do it.’”
Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that aside from concentrating power in the premier’s office, Houston’s government is also limiting debate in the legislature.
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