Government needs to listen and act

AG’s report has little good news

Plenty of Albertans might be on vacation or stampeding in Calgary this week, but the provincial auditor general was not, and his report makes for bracing reading.

As auditors general do, their legislated duties involve casting glances back, and with the tools of their accounting trade, tracking ledgers to see if money was spent properly, and if not, to recommend changes. Part of that job description also involves analyzing the internal systems and organizational structures in the pursuit of better results next time.

It appears the provincial government has a very long “to do” list. In his July report released on Tuesday, auditor general Merwan Saher covered bioenergy grants, climate change, the management of sand and gravel resources, tracking outsourcing to surgical facilities, Athabasca university, administrative systems, the use of credit cards for senior government staff, and a perennial favourite: how clear and understandable, or not, is the provincial budget since the province began to change its approach to budget reporting beginning back in the summer of 2013.

The auditor general’s focus on how much the provincial government spent on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through its climate change strategy, announced in 2008, has drawn a lot of attention, as well it should.

Saher is critical of the government on various counts. While the department of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development finally came up with an implementation plan for reducing greenhouse gases in 2012 — four years after the announcement of a strategy and after much prodding by Saher’s department in previous reports, it turned out the beef was less than the bun.

“The department lacks key infor- mation needed to monitor progress,” writes Saher, and the plan has not been updated annually as intended, nor have the “processes to ensure accurate data and no double counting of reductions were in effective,” been created; no criteria has been developed for choosing new climate changes actions, and just as poorly, the criteria for evaluating existing climate change actions plans “have not been developed.”

Saher points out only 10 per cent of the province’s targeted emission reductions are likely to happen when all is said and done, and this because the province’s strategy has been illthought out and even more poorly delivered to date.

As the auditor general pointed out, that greenhouse gas reduction strategy is important to Albertans for environmental, economic and social reasons. Much attention has been focused on Alberta’s oilsands and critically so in many cases. So it is important that attempts to reduce such emissions at least start with tracking what is happening, changing course if necessary and then implementing new plans that will reduce greenhouse gases.

Switching tack, the focus on climate change was only one part of the report. Elsewhere, the auditor general once again takes the province to task for its’ presentation of its numbers. To repeat past critiques from Saher and this board, it is overdue for the province to return to clear, accurate and transparent reporting. The Alberta government collects tens of billions of dollars every year in taxes, fees, royalties and transfers from and to the federal government, borrows in addition, and last year alone spent $49.7 billion.

Auditors general are key because they provide independent advice. We advise the province start listening and acting, on that advice. That’s the minimum that should be required of a $50-billion government.