Saher’s bid for greater accountability

Merwan Saher is Alberta's auditor-general. Del Graff is Alberta's child and youth advocate. They are both independent officers of the legislature. They both investigate the actions and potential misdeeds of government departments.

In theory, they have similar powers. In practice, they don't. When Saher makes a finding, he has the full force of the legislature's all-party public accounts committee behind him, tracking his recommendations, holding public hearings where the civil service and the government are held to account.

When Graff makes a recommendation? It disappears into the Great Void. The Department of Human Services says it tracks all recommendations — “internally.”

The rest of us have no way to know what's happening. Graff is virtually impotent. He has no power or mechanism to hold human services bureaucrats accountable.

Now, in a provocative move, Saher is calling for the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate to be given powers parallel to his own.

“I just reason the model would work well for any independent office of the legislature,” said Saher.

“I think it's worthy considering that other legislative officers should look to our office as a benchmark.”

Saher outlined his plan in a letter to the standing committee on legislative offices, which is holding hearings on the Child and Youth Advocate Act this week.

“Reports to the auditor general of Alberta ... are automatically referred to the standing committee on public accounts under its standing orders,” reads the letter. “A similar legislative standing committee established under the Child and Youth Advocate Act could have reports referred to it from the advocate, and receive information and response from a ministry. For example, the Department of Human Services could report an item in the advocate's reports on vulnerable children and youth who receive services from the Government of Alberta.”

That may not sound exciting to you.

But it's actually a remarkably radical idea. It could mean giving an all-party committee the power to make human services bureaucrats testify before them, holding them publicly accountable to ensure implementation of recommendations — or to explain, publicly, why those recommendations won't work. Graff is intrigued. “Certainly, I'd be interested in something that could bring about a more timely and robust response,” said the advocate.

Right now, he says, human services accepts and acts upon about one-third of his recommendations.

Another one-third are “in progress.”

As for the other one-third? As far as Graff knows, they're not being acted upon.

“There is an accountability vacuum, somewhere,” said Graff. “How that gets addressed, I don't know.”

For many years, Alberta's children's advocate wasn't an independent officer of the legislature at all. Before Graff, advocates worked for the ministry — an impossible situation for a watchdog

Graff's predecessor, John Mould, terrified of upsetting child welfare bureaucrats, was so timid and slow, his vacuous “annual” reports were filed years late.

Alison Redford, to her credit, expanded the advocate's mandate and made the office accountable to all MLAs and not the ministry. But reports still go to the minister for action, without legislative oversight. There is no accountability, no followup.

Jason Nixon is the human services critic for the Wildrose Opposition. He's excited about Saher's proposal.

“I think it is a great idea,” he said. “It's shocking, the more I read, how many good ideas have already been recommended, and nothing has come from it.”

An all-party standing committee, he said, would take politics out of the process, and put the focus on the way the administration is working.

But over in the office of Human Services Minister Irfan Sabir, Saher's idea is getting a rather tepid response.

“We appreciate the auditor general's work in this area and the important recommendations of the child and youth advocate,” said departmental spokesman Aaron Manton in an emailed statement Monday. “As we explore ways to improve our supports for children and families, we look forward to further conversation regarding this and other ideas that have been raised.”

Meantime, what's happened to that child intervention review panel, the one the government promised last month? Opposition sources say they've been told the panel likely won't convene until Feb. 1. Manton will only say they hope to be able to announce a start date and the names of the panel members in the next few days.

The panel will have its work cut out for it. But it should surely add Saher's idea to members' discussions.

Until we have a public mechanism to hold the child welfare system to account, all the worthy recommendations in the world will be worthless.