National Post

Alberta rapped over failures in SuperNet

- DEAN BENNETT AND CLARE CLANCY

EDMONTON • Alberta’s auditor general says the government has been failing to make sure taxpayers get value for money spent on contracts to run the province’s $1-billion SuperNet.

SuperNet, which serves 429 communitie­s across the province, costs about $40 million per year to operate and an additional $16 million in annual maintenanc­e.

The high-speed internet service, which was first announced in 2001 and completed in 2005, connects to schools, hospitals, libraries and government offices.

“The processes could and should be improved relating to how the government is monitoring its contract (and) how it’s enforcing compliance with the terms and conditions of the contract,” Doug Wylie said Wednesday, delivering his first report as auditor general.

“Albertans have paid for three more years of a contract that the department assessed was not meeting desired results,” the report said.

“With a contract as significan­t as this relating to SuperNet, the Internet provision of services to Albertans throughout the province, effective processes really are required.”

Wylie said Service Alberta has not been diligent enough in keeping track of disruption­s and in making sure providers deliver key financial data on service fees and network usage.

He also said there have been unresolved disputes with providers on some contract specifics.

Wylie said the department never resolved those problems, and renewed its contract in 2013 despite concerns that taxpayers might not be getting the best deal.

“The department needed to extend the SuperNet operating agreement because it was not prepared for any other option,” the report said. The contracts cost Albertans about $56 million a year.

Brian Malkinson, minister for Service Alberta, said the contract signed under the previous Progressiv­e Conservati­ve government was flawed, but that the NDP government has learned from those mistakes and drafted a new deal this year with better benefits for users and more oversight for taxpayers.

“It’s an excellent example of something that our government had to come through and fix,” said Malkinson. “Albertans weren’t getting good value out of the previous SuperNet contract.”

Earlier this year, Service Alberta announced the latest contract to operate the service would go to Bell Canada.

“The department may continue to spend money without knowing the true extent to which desired results are being achieved,” the report said.

Service Alberta Minister Brian Malkinson said the province adopted the auditor’s recommenda­tions when it signed the latest contract, which includes more oversight and better access for internet-service providers in rural areas.

Malkinson said Service Alberta will be putting the details of the contract online once it’s finalized.

He said the NDP didn’t terminate the contract with Axia when elected to government in 2015 because the province didn’t want to repeat past mistakes.

“We wanted to make sure we took the time to properly construct the RFP for a new contract,” he said.

Wylie recommende­d that the province develop better processes for monitoring contracts in general.

“We identified this contract specifical­ly as a baseline to test the system,” he said at a news conference. “We were looking for contracts that were complex, extended a significan­t period of time, and were essentiall­y of high risk.”

It was the first report from Wylie since he took office as auditor general in April.

Wylie also said provincial monitoring of wildfire prevention programs could be improved.

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