House Speaker finds no intent to mislead about delayed financial report
Even though Finance Minister Travis Toews and Premier Jason Kenney may have made inaccurate statements in the legislative assembly, there’s no indication they meant to intentionally mislead the house, Speaker Nathan Cooper ruled Tuesday.
The decision shut down a question of privilege raised by the Opposition NDP last week alleging the premier and minister lied about why the province’s 2019-20 financial report was being delayed.
On June 22, when NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley asked why the government was not releasing its budget report by the original deadline of June 30, Premier Jason Kenney said that “the auditor general has indicated that their office is not in a position, because of the pandemic, to produce a report according to the normal schedule.” Recent legislation had extended the deadline for releasing the review to the end of August, when the legislature is not scheduled to sit.
The premier’s comments echoed those of Finance Minister Travis Toews in late May, who told the legislature that the Auditor General, Doug Wylie, had concerns staff would not be able to complete the audit by the end of June.
But after the office of the Auditor General said it never stated any concerns about its ability to complete the audit by June 30, the NDP raised a question of privilege alleging the premier and minister had been deliberately misleading the house and “besmirching” the reputation of the Auditor General.
On Monday, deputy Government House Leader Ric Mciver told the assembly that neither Toews nor Kenney stated the Auditor General had approached the government looking for an extension, and the Opposition was “confused.” He also pointed to a public statement from the Auditor General’s office, which said on March 19 it was “assessing and managing the implications to both our people and our ability to continue to fulfil our legislated mandate.”
The decision to give the Auditor General more time to complete the financial report was made by the government.
The Auditor General is not a government employee but an independent officer of the assembly.
Cooper said Tuesday that there is a high threshold to merit a point of privilege. In addition to the statement being misleading, a member must have known it was inaccurate and uttered it to deliberately mislead other members. Even though the provincial controller’s office asked for the extension — not the Auditor General — there’s no indication the government intended to mislead, he said.
“It is exceedingly difficult to prove a case of deliberately misleading the assembly, and so it should be,” Cooper said.