Nova Scotia Conservatives promise ‘no boondoggle’ law

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia’s Tories are promising to introduce a “no-boondoggle guarantee” if they are elected in the May 30 provincial election.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie says any time a government project exceeds its budget by more than 10 per cent, that would trigger an automatic internal audit, the results of which would be made public.

“It’s a guarantee to the taxpayers of this province that when their tax money gets squandered that they’re going to know about it,” he said Friday at his campaign headquarters in Halifax, though he had few details to offer when asked how the new law would work.

Baillie would not set a threshold when asked what level of government spending would be covered by the guarantee. And he said a Conservative government would work out the details later when asked if the new rules would come with any legislative teeth, like fines or other penalties.

He was also unclear about who would conduct the audits, saying only they would be independent.

“The main benefit is that it would be made public and everyone would know, and the premier and responsible ministers would be held accountable for the boondoggle itself,” he told a news conference. “There’s no greater cleaner than the light of day.”

As an example, he pointed to the reconstruction of the schooner Bluenose II, which was plagued by cost-overruns and legal wrangling for years. In 2014, less than a year after the Liberals assumed power, Premier Stephen McNeil said the previous NDP government’s handling of the file resulted in a “boondoggle” that required a full review by the province’s auditor general.

Baillie said such a review would be automatic under his no-boondoggle guarantee.

“It’s a guarantee of accountability and transparency,” he said.