Witnesses blocked again
A last-ditch attempt to get key players in the e-gaming venture to appear as witnesses before the public accounts committee was once again blocked by a majority of Liberal backbench MLAs Wednesday. The committee heard from Finance Minister Allen Roach Wednesday, who has been tasked by the premier to implement the auditor general’s recommendations following her damning report on the province’s e-gaming scheme.
Roach is one of only a handful of witnesses the committee has called to answer questions about this controversial file — but this is not for lack of trying by the Opposition MLAs on the committee. Opposition finance critic Darlene Compton has repeatedly called motions asking for individuals who worked directly on e-gaming, named by the auditor general over the last several months of public accounts meetings. On Wednesday, Compton tried again. She moved a motion to call former premier Robert Ghiz, former finance minister Wes Sheridan, former chief of staff to premier Ghiz Chris LeClair, lawyer Bill Dow, businessmen Garth Jenkins and Paul Jenkins, e-gaming working group members Mike O’Brien, Gary Scales, Kevin Kiley; former deputy ministers Melissa MacEachern, Micheal Mayne, Tracey Cutcliffe and securities commission officials Steven Dowling and Katherine Tummon. But rookie Liberal MLA Chris Palmer said he felt this would be repeating the work of the auditor general, as she interviewed these individuals during her audit. “I don’t think we need to bring them in,” Palmer said. Committee chairman James Aylward countered this, noting auditor general Jane MacAdam told the committee in January she is not confident she received all relevant government records.
“I think that’s why it’s incumbent upon this committee to dig deeper, dig further and to question some of these people.”
But once again, the majority of Liberal MLAs on the committee voted the request for witnesses down. After the meeting, Aylward said he questions how this fits with Premier Wade MacLauchlan’s oft-repeated commitment to openness and transparency.