When Ontario Premier Doug Ford first announced that his Government for the Peopleâ„¢ would be striking a select committee to investigate the accounting practices of the previous Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne, a number of commentators wondered why not because those practices aren't improper, but because they may not merit further study. Related concerns have been publicly raised before, and continue to be so. Moreover, Wynne's government has been punished for its fiscal misdeeds in the most direct way possible: with a devastating loss at the polls.
The biggest question, however, is why a committee composed entirely of sitting MPPs is necessary when there already exists an office designated to undertake this sort of work. It employs several people whose job is to "conduct an official financial examination of an individual's or organization's accounts." These people are known in the industry as auditors.
For five years, the most strident voice for fiscal accountability in Ontario has not been Ford or any of his ministers, but Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk. No one was a bigger thorn in the paw of the Wynne government than her. She was the first to put the Liberals on the defensive about their accounting methodology, essentially doing the real work for Ford's select committee. When she spoke before the committee on Monday, she didn't share much that she and, via her reports, Ontarians didn't already know about why Ontario's deficit was so much larger than the Liberals' pre-election estimates.
Lysyk's record is not without its low points. Her willingness to editorialize about her findings has come under justifiable scrutiny. But the Ford government evidently takes her positions very seriously, or else they would not have earned her credit in September for following Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards. They're taking exactly the actions she hoped for, and then some. If only their commitment to cost savings extended to their own inquiry.
But since it's already underway, we'll move on to another step the Ford government could take for Ontario's break with the Liberals to be as clean as possible: re-empowering Lysyk's office. In 2015, the Wynne government narrowed the definition of "partisan" in the Government Advertising Act, which empowers the AG's office to flag any taxpayer-funded advertising seen to promote the governing party. Under these changes, the AG could consider obvious elements such as names, voices, personal images, logos, and colours but not the overall messaging of an ad. At the time, Lysyk said that if the government instead of moving these changes forward, she would rather shift reviewing authority to a different office, rather than becoming a "rubber stamp."
For the Progressive Conservatives' part, then-leader Patrick Brown accused the Liberals of committing a "flip-flop" on a law they had brought in themselves 11 years earlier. On the other hand, he had no problem with the federal Conservatives posting their blue-heavy Canada's Economic Action Planâ„¢ signs wherever possible. Were any taxpayer funds going toward the PCs' explicitly partisan, poorly green-screened Ontario News Now series, delivered by "reporter" (read: hired comms hack) Lyndsey Vanstone, it would be first on Lysyk's radar under the old and new rules. But future governments may have defter hands when it comes to twisting government communications for their party's advantage.
To prevent this, and to assure taxpayers further of their commitment to make the best possible use of their money, the Ford government ought to follow one of Lysyk's recommendations: either change the rules back, or kick her current purview over government advertising elsewhere. The government's inclination to do either is in doubt, given their evident opinion that they can audit better than an Auditor General. Besides, these rules would apply to any current and future governments, unlike a select committee investigating only one thing. But they did promise to change the rules back last year, after all and their reliance on Lysyk's perspective to attack the Liberals means such a change is their only logical course of action.
Personally, I would take option 2 and give reviewing authority to another office, one empowered to flag any communication or behaviour in government that is too Stalinist for comfort. But option 1 will do.
Photo Credit: Jeff Burney, Loonie Politics
Written by Jess Morgan
