Murray Mandryk: Pandemic or not, gov’t must be accountable

By Murray Mandryk

No government has ever been a paragon of virtue when it comes to unaccountable to taxpayers.

And during a global pandemic when governments have to address deadly health concerns on very short notice, sometimes time-consuming protocols of accountability have been put aside.

We do elect governments to make choices and not every choice they make can be make through a referendum that determines what’s most popular.

In fact, the sharpest criticism Premier Scott Moe has received during this pandemic has been for simply following the closed-door advice of Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab who has recommended closures and lockdowns.

But when it comes to spending public tax dollars, there can and should be very little compromise on accountability.

We all should get that.

Even during this pandemic, you have received itemized bills on things you have paid for. And whether or not you can come in close physical contact with your supplier, you have maintained the right to be able to ask why each item on that bill cost as much as it does.

Politicians get that too. In fact, politicians get that more than we do because they love to beat their opponents over their heads when accountability doesn’t happen.

That was surely the case when Moe has rightly criticized the federal government and Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not delivering a budget during this pandemic.

But maybe Moe and his current Saskatchewan Party administration need to take a long hard look in the mirror when it comes to their own fiscal accountability during this pandemic —especially, given the history of their party and its promises of accountability.

That commitment came in the form of the Sask. Party’s biggest 2007 election promise that: “A Saskatchewan Party Government will provide Saskatchewan people with more transparency and accountability than any previous government.”

There was a reason why the Sask. Party made such a bold, strong commitment.

It was a party that rose from the ashes of the old Progressive Conservative government — undoubtedly, the least accountable government in our province’s history if not the history of the entire country. It didn’t even pass it’s last of nine consecutive deficit budgets that left the province in chaos and on the brink of bankruptcy.

Again, no government has ever been perfectly accountability. It’s worth reminding overly sanctimonious New Democrats that love to remind voters on the history of PC accountability that the last NDP government sure had its own penchant for unaccounted –for backroom deals to buy money-losing U.S. dot.com and to deceive the public on the ownership arrangement of Spudco that lost $36 million. This was also taxpayers’ money.

But this is precisely why we hold legislative sessions and budgets.

The Saskatchewan legislature has sat just eight days — the least in the country — since it passed the 2020-21 budget in mid-July. (And you may recall that the Sask. Party government did try to sneak in a “budget” in March with no revenue projections or deficit figure that turned out to be $2.4 billion.)

Now, the Sask. Party government has set the 2021-22 budget date for April 6 — a month later than usual, meaning there will be that much legislative scrutiny by the time the assembly’s sitting ends just before the may long weekend.

In the meantime, we will simply be spending money through cabinet decree, including a recent one to increase spending on the pandemic to $322.8 million.

Maybe there’s little nefarious about this, given that it’s extra money for the Safe School Plan ($40 million) the Saskatchewan Health Authority, ($76 million), the Saskatchewan Small Business Emergency Payment Program ($20 million), tourism ($17 million) and Municipal Grants ($14 million).

But it’s still our money and spending needs to be accounted for in the legislature in a thorough way.

Governments should never be allowed to forget that.