Saskatchewan village faces financial audit
A north Saskatchewan community’s finances will come under the microscope as the provincial government conducts an official inquiry that will include a financial audit.
Saskatchewan’s Minister of Government Relations Warren Kaeding said Thursday the government will “widen the scope” of an inspection into the Northern Village of Pinehouse after reviewing an independent report from lawyer Neil Robertson and following discussions within Kaeding ’s ministry and the Ministry of Justice.
The province will expand Robertson’s authority to conduct an official inquiry, begin a financial audit and appoint Hasan Akhtar — manager of Northern Municipal Administration within the Ministry of Government Relations — to an advisory and support role for Pinehouse’s council.
Kaeding said the ministry needed “further analysis” of some information in Robertson’s report.
“We still need to get some answers to some of our concerns that we’ve seen in the initial report and we’re hoping to get this expanded upon with Mr. Robertson,” he said.
Akhtar has been appointed until March 2020 to “guide” Pinehouse and help it “get back on track” in managing its affairs. Part of Akhtar’s responsibilities will include ensuring the village responds to valid access to information requests.
Kaeding said he won’t put a fixed timeline on a second report. He is encouraging Robertson to be expedient but thorough, he said.
Trent Wotherspoon, the Opposition critic of municipal relations and finance, called on the government to release Robertson’s interim report.
Robertson was appointed in December to conduct an inspection following a recommendation from Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner Ron Kruzeniski.
Kruzeniski’s recommendation came in a report relating to requests for disclosure of information under provincial freedom of information and protection of privacy legislation either not being fulfilled or not being responded to before the legislated 30 days.
The province began to monitor the village’s compliance after it gave an incomplete response to an information request in September 2017. The inspection called in December was aimed at uncovering why the village’s responses were either incomplete or unfulfilled, and to look into the village’s financial situation and business administration.
In a January interview, Natomagan said the village was in no hurry to make changes.
“To be quite honest, living in (one of the poorest regions of Canada), do we care about freedom of information? Not really. Are we going to get another slap on the hand here? Probably ... We’ll get to it when we get to it, when we have time, because there are other priorities within our community,” Natomagan said.