Rod Love Spouts Off
On my morning commute to the LRT station, I listen to the radio. Thankfully the CBC strike is over and I can get my info fix (Jack FM is great for music, but I missed my morning news and info). Well this morning they had Rod Love on talking about the Gomery Commission. The Gomery Commission is in Alberta looking at recommendations to help prevent the Sponsorship Scandal from happening again. Apparently Mr. Love has been invited to provide a submission to the Commission and CBC was interviewing him this morning. Well Rod was spouting off how the Sponsorship Scandal could never happen in Alberta since the Alberta government does things differently. He was going on how wonderful the provincial government was compared to Ottawa. It would seem that Mr. Love hasn't read any of the Auditor General's reports for the past few years.
The Auditor General of Alberta has been harping in his reports for the past few years about how contracts are doled out here in Alberta. First, he's complained that certain contracts aren't tendered. Engineering and consulting contracts aren't tendered, but just given out to whoever the minister likes. Further, these contracts for the most part don't have specific goals and accountability measures. Sounding like the Sponsorship Scandal? Also, the reports continually identify the oil and gas royalty system being so poorly managed that millions of tax revenue is being lost. The provincial government has done nothing to fix this. Why? Perhaps the oil companies (who make up a bulk of the Alberta PC party contributions) don't want the system fixed, since they benefit at the expense of the people of Alberta.
Further, money has been given to various groups such as the horse racing industry, community groups and contractors without any accountability as to if the job the money was given for was even done. In some instances money was paid out for contracts that hadn't even been signed.
It would appear the only difference between the federal Liberals and the provincial Tories is that the provincial Tories are better at hiding their sloppy accounting and accountability practices. There is a very good chance that a scandal of Sponsorship proportions is hiding somewhere deep inside the Alberta Government. They already are wasting millions of tax dollars that we know of, how much more is being wasted by the most secretive provincial government in the country? So for Rod Love to say such a scandal would be impossible in Alberta is misleading at best. It is quite possible, given the information contained inside the auditor general's reports. Rod is either in denial or is out to mislead Albertans about the possibility of it happening here.