It's natural for Auditor General Jacques Lapointe to believe all his recommendations should be implemented, and implemented promptly. Nova Scotia journalists certainly seem to have accepted that view, but is it necessarily so? In his latest report, and in the three press statements he released today to promote it, M. Lapointe complains that only 41 percent of his 2010 recommendations have been implemented to his satisfaction, and only 71 to 79 percent of the recommendations in his reports from 2007, 2008, and 2009. (He didn't add the "to his satisfaction" qualifier, but it's worth noting, since Premier Darrell Dexter complained that...

22 May, 2013

Graham Steele and I had a further email exchange. I suggested he had not answered the question at the heart of my original query: Why didn't you (or, if you wish, why didn't [Cabinet Clerk Greg] Keefe) simply waive solicitor client privilege in these cases? [caption id="attachment_5552" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Canny Mandarins"][/caption] I added: A second question that I didn't ask, but which still hovers over this: Is this a sign that the NDP government, with its very small cabinet, is falling prey to a classic malady of new governments, especially new governments whose ministers have no experience in government: that of being unduly led...

04 June, 2010

At first blush, Auditor General Jacques Lapointe's refusal to issue an audit opinion on the province's two largest business loan funds looks like another in the lengthening string of Dexter Government screw-ups. This is the NDP, for heaven's sake, perennial champions of openness and accountability, withholding 281 documents and redacting a further 32 on grounds of cabinet confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege, thereby thwarting independent scrutiny of the corporate welfare trough they once scorned. Solicitor-client privilege protects communications between a lawyer and a client from being disclosed without the permission of the client. It binds the lawyer, not the client. In the...

04 June, 2010

In the wake of Glace Bay MLA Dave Wilson's surprise resignation while under forensic audit of his expense claims, a young Contrarian friend asks if I'm ready to retract my post all but dismissing the expense brouhaha. Answer: I'm getting there. We don't yet know the story behind Wilson's abrupt departure, and I don't wish to imply otherwise. But even before that news broke Friday, the premier's ham-fisted attempts to resolve criticism surrounding his expensing of Barristers' Society dues had me rethinking the issue. Contrarian's alter-ego is currently submerged in a writing assignment, so I will merely flag the topic for later elaboration....

14 March, 2010

Civil servants are happy with the Dexter Government's methodical approach to policy because ministers are listening carefully to policy advice and deliberating before acting. But the issues keep coming, whether government's ready to act or not. The risk of Dexter's approach is that ministers may fall into reactive mode, moving from crisis to crisis rather than driving the new government's policy agenda. We have already seen Health Minister Maureen MacDonald struggling with the discovery that she cannot wish away the problem of rural emergency room closures, as she and the party assured voters they could during the election. (More on this soon.) Today,...

30 July, 2009