Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith spoke out about the Auditor General’s report into the use of government aircraft by the Redford government and says a full, public inquiry should be held.
The Auditor General’s report was released on Thursday and found that the former premier, and her office ‘acted in an aura of power", under the perception the office’s decisions should not be questioned.
The audit looked at Redford’s travel expenses and use of taxpayer funded resources and found that her office inappropriately used government aircraft, with government planes being ordered for the premier for both "personal and partisan" purposes.
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith commented on Auditor General Merwan Saher’s report on Friday and says a full and broad public inquiry into government-wide spending practices is needed.
She started by addressing the party’s call for the Finance Minister’s resignation.
“We had hoped that they would do the right thing. We had hoped that they would look at the result of the report, especially that fact that the Auditor General basically said that the Finance Minister was responsible for overseeing, not only all government spending, but certainly overseeing the use of the government air fleet. The fact that, after saying that they were going to accept all the recommendations of the Auditor General’s report, to watch the outrageous display of Finance Minister Doug Horner ducking and weaving, refusing to take responsibility, saying it wasn’t his responsibility, trying to blame everybody else but himself, trying to pretend that he did not know what was going on,” said Smith.
She says that her party does not think an RCMP investigation is enough.
“We think an RCMP investigation is worthwhile because we need to understand whether or not there was a criminal breach of trust that’s been performed here and that will wind its way through the process and it may take years to get to an answer. We do think the Auditor General’s report was helpful but even he acknowledged that he was limited in his scope. He said that he was only mandated to look at the spending of the premier’s department and we do not know whether or not this abuse goes across all ministries, we have a suspicion that it’s touching the decision making that’s happening in other ministries, the fact that you have staff member who feel intimidated to the point where they break the rules and do work arounds that is something that requires a full, public inquiry.” said Smith.
Smith is challenging the three Alberta PC leadership candidates to commit to calling this kind of inquiry if they become leader and Premier.
“And we’re asking all three of the leadership contenders to holding a public inquiry into this issue should they get elected on September 6th or September the 20th,” said Smith.
She says the only way to get to the bottom of the "aura of power' in the premier's office is with a public inquiry and that it should be held before the next election.
