Category: Auditor General

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Auditor General Calgary-Egmont Fred Dunn Jennifer Pollock Jonathan Denis Lewis Cardinal Mary MacDonald Mel Knight Peter Lougheed Ray Martin Richard Nixon Rick Szostak

dunn’s done. now… more than ever.

Dunn’s done. Auditor General Fred Dunn has announced that he will be stepping down in February 2010.

In 2007, Dunn singled out Energy Minister Mel Knight and the Department of Energy for failing to collect billions of dollars in resource revenues over the past 15 years. In 2009, Dunn’s office announced the delay or cancellation of 27 out of 80 planned system and financial audits due to lack of financial resources. At the time, Calgary-Egmont MLA Jonathan Denis was quoted as justifing the lack of funding to the Auditor General by defending the one-year MLA pay freeze:

“Realistically everybody would like more money, I would like more money, but the reality is we froze our pay cheques this year. This is the first time in 15 years we froze our pay cheques. And similarly we don’t want to be giving extra money to departments where that’s not required.”

Now… more than ever. His ideas may now be marginalized within the party he led to office 38 years ago, but the now Stelmach-led PC Party is seeking to revive fond memories of Peter Lougheed‘s victory over Harry Strom‘s Social Credit Party. The slogan for the November 6-7, 2009 PC leadership review, ‘Now… more than ever,’ appears to be an attempt to remind older supporters of their party’s exciting 1971 slogan: ‘Now!‘ Or maybe I’m wrong and the PCs are actually trying to channel Richard Nixon….


Who’s ready for a federal election? With the exception voters in a couple of ridings, Albertans are going to be far off the political radar in any upcoming federal election. While the Conservatives have already nominated candidates in all 28 ridings, the Liberals and NDP have only officially nominated a couple candidates each (Liberals: Jennifer Pollock in Calgary-West, Mary MacDonald in Edmonton-Centre, Rick Szostak in Edmonton-Sherwood Park. NDP: Lewis Cardinal in Edmonton-Centre and Ray Martin in Edmonton-East). With an election seemingly imminent, expect to hear a lot from the New Obama Party when they hold their caucus retreat in Edmonton in a couple of weeks.

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Alberta Budget 2009 Auditor General Capital Region Board Ed Stelmach Iris Evans Jim Dinning

2009 alberta pre-budget playbook.

Alberta’s 2009 Provincial Budget will be unveiled at 3pm today, but before you sit down to attentively soak up Finance & Enterprise Minister Iris Evans‘ every word, here’s a short pre-budget playbook:

– How have Alberta’s financial and economic prospects been, according to Premier Ed Stelmach? Good, really bad, not as bad as I told you 24 hours ago, rosy, depending on which month of the year it is.
– A report from the University of Calgary School of Public Policy (pdf) warns that the province could return to a 1980s Getty-style fiscal situation. According to the Calgary Herald, Premier Stelmach reportedly dismissed the report (which was written by two Government Finance and Economics experts) as “nonsense.“
– Both the Liberal and NDP Opposition are tackling the budget from an outreach angle. The NDP launched a roundtable consultation months ago, and the Liberals recently launched a website where Albertans can suggest questions for the Official Opposition to ask during budget debates. It would be nice to hear some constructive criticism from the opposition on the budget, but prepare for some railing.
– On April 2, 2009, the Capital Region Board (comprising the municipalities in the Edmonton region) unveiled the Capital Region Growth Plan: Growing Forward. With this report, municipal leaders have taken an important step in guiding the future development of the Capital Region, but like any major development plan, it will need to be backed up with funding to become a reality.
– Iris’ shoe collection. Alberta’s Best Dressed Woman MLA will be shelving her expensive designer shoes (from last year’s budget) in favour of something more modest.
UPDATE: Twitter is #FAILWHALE today, but if it gets fixed, you can follow #ableg for live tweets.
I will be in the Public Gallery for the Budget Speech, and after I make my way through the post-budget scrums, I will report back.
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Auditor General

getting what you pay for.

Elections Alberta (during 2008 election campaign)… $9.4 million

Office of the Auditor General… $21.5 million
Re-branding Alberta (“Freedom to Create. Spirit to Achieve”)… $25 million

UPDATE: In retrospect, perhaps this post would be better summed up as:

The $25 million public relations campaign is an exercise in spin. I am proud to be Albertan, but I wish our elected officials would not have to rely on high-priced public relations consultants as a crutch to manage Alberta’s identity. I wish for an Alberta where our elected officials had the courage to lead by and defend Alberta’s national and international reputation through the strength of their actions. Alberta is an incredible province, with some incredible people, but the institutional mediocrity that has crept into our democratic culture has stymied our limitless potential. Alberta in 2009 is a great place to live, but it has the potential to be so much better.
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Auditor General Fred Dunn Jeff Johnson Jonathan Denis

bullshit detector reaches critical levels [re: auditor general].

Alberta’s Auditor General Fred Dunn recently announced the delay or cancellation of 27 out of 80 planned system and financial audits due to budget constraints and yesterday, after opposition MLAs once again attempted (and failed) to increase funding for the Auditor General, the remarks of two backbench PC MLAs really caught my attention:

Calgary-Egmont MLA Jonathan Denis:

“Realistically everybody would like more money, I would like more money, but the reality is we froze our paycheques this year. This is the first time in 15 years we froze our paycheques. And similarly we don’t want to ge giving extra money to departments where that’s not required.”

Athabasca-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson:

“We’re in a time of great financial restraint,” Johnson said. “I don’t know how we (justify) going from $21.5 million to $25 million in one year….” “Nobody has enough money to do the job they’d like to do.”

The mandate of the Auditor General of Alberta is to ‘identify opportunities and propose solutions for the improved use of public resources, and to improve and add credibility to performance reporting, including financial reporting, to Albertans.‘ Ensuring financial and systematic efficiency through these audits is one of our government’s most important responsibilities to the hardworking citizens and taxpayers of this province. Albertans should not have to wait until good economic times for the Auditor General to have the resources to do the most effective job possible.

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Auditor General Fred Dunn Highwood Communications Public Affairs Bureau

auditor general delays audit into highwood communications.

Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn has delayed or canceled 27 of the planned 80 systematic audits because of budget constraints (apparently, in Alberta, our politicians underfunds two of a government’s most important responsibilities, Audits and elections).

Among the delayed includes a recently announced audit into the now defunct Highwood Communications that has been postponed until October 2009 (for more on Highwood Communications…).

Other important audits that have been delayed or canceled include investigations into the collection process of Alberta natural resource royalties (delayed indefinitely), post-secondary education facility capacity and utilization (canceled), post-secondary program planning (canceled), Sustainable Resource Environmental Management (delayed until 2010), and measuring the effectiveness of the fiscal regime of the Department of Finance and Enterprise (delayed until 2011). A full list can be found here.

(h/t Trish Audette)

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