A limit to snoopiness

The Redford government has improved transparency in recent months by posting the expenses of politicians and senior civil servants online.

Now Don Scott, the government’s associate minister of accountability, transparency and transformation, says the Tories are considering disclosing the names of every provincial employee who earns $100,000 a year or more, just as many other provinces do to varying degrees under socalled sunshine legislation.

The Tories deserve credit for contemplating such a registry, but at some point, such disclosures risk being more about snoopiness and nosiness than transparency in the public’s best interest. Unless the provincial government is needlessly paying civil servants more than $100,000 — and there’s no evidence it is — then why should Albertans expect a list of such recipients to be made public?

There’s also the fact that the release of such information could create pressure to increase salaries, as civil servants cast an envious eye at people in similar categories, or learn of the wages paid to those who previously held their position.

“It has an inflationary effect,” says Marco Navarro-Genie, vice-president of research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, who noted a 2010 study by University of Toronto academics suggested Ontario’s sunshine list actually helped send public sector executive salaries upward.

For this reason — and the fact civil servants are entitled to a degree of dignity and privacy, regardless of the fact their salaries are paid for by other Albertans — Scott should ignore the temptation to produce a list of well-paid public workers.