The legislature may not be back in session quite yet, but the work of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts has gone on, having met again on Monday, Feb. 13.
The meeting proved to be the latest, and also the last, volley in the ongoing dispute between NDP and Saskatchewan Party MLAs over the number of witnesses who ought to be called to the committee to testify on the provincial auditor’s report in the Global Transportation Hub land deal.
The debate on the GTH land deal, over the escalation in land values on parcels of land bought by the province, was a prime topic through the fall sitting as opposition leader Trent Wotherspoon raised the issue day after day during Question Period. The ministry of economy, and in particular its former minister Bill Boyd, have particularly been under fire from the NDP.
The fight has also raged on at the public accounts committee level. What transpired was an ongoing tug of war where the NDP would make various procedural motions for certain witnesses to be called, only for the motions to be voted down by the Sask. Party’s committee majority.
At the Nov. 8 public accounts committee meeting, Saskatoon Nutana MLA Cathy Sproule, sitting in that day for Regina Douglas Park MLA Nicole Sarauer, made a motion that read as follows:
That this committee request the deputy minister of Economy, Mr. Laurie Pushor; the former CEO of the Global Transportation Hub, Mr. John Law; the former interim CEO of the Global Transportation Hub, Mr. Chris Dekker; and the current CEO of the Global Transportation Hub, Mr. Bryan Richards appear before the committee as witnesses at a meeting or meetings of the Public Accounts Committee held prior to November 30th, 2016.
The motion was defeated along straight party lines, with Northwest-area Saskatchewan Party MLAs Herb Cox (Battlefords), Randy Weekes (Biggar-Saskatchewan Valley) and Larry Doke (Cut Knife-Turtleford) among those voting to defeat Sproule’s motion by a 5-1 margin. The lone vote in favour of her motion was Sproule herself.
Later that meeting, Doke moved that the committee “request the deputy minister of Highways and the CEO of the Global Transportation Hub to present before the committee on the recommendations made in the Special Report: Land Acquisition Processes: The Global Transportation Hub Authority and Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure.”
This was not enough for Sproule, who then moved an amendment that “all senior officials from the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure, Ministry of the Economy, going back to 2011” be requested to present.
In remarks recorded in Hansard, Sproule made clear she wanted Pushor, the deputy minister of the economy, to appear before the committee because of his direct involvement.
Ms. Sproule: — If I could just speak to the amendment, Madam Chair, I think what’s really important here is that we have an opportunity as a committee to ask questions of the officials that were there at the time and certainly of senior officials who were directly involved in the negotiation of the east parcels, in particular Mr. Laurie Pushor; and that just having a motion the way it reads right now, which was submitted to members of the committee by a staffer from the Executive Council, I think that is something that really short shrifts the committee in its ability to do its work properly.
In the end, Sproule’s amendment failed by a 6-1 vote. Doke’s original motion carried, again by the same party-line division.
The public accounts committee met again on Nov. 28 and Jan. 11 and 12. At those meetings as well, Sproule put forward a similar motion requesting the appearance of Pushor, Law, Dekker and Richards.
The vote on that motion was adjourned until Jan. 12, when it was finally defeated. On that date, Larry Doke had these comments:
Mr. Doke: — Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess just going back to November 8th, we voted on this motion. We voted it down. Now we have an amendment and a new motion almost to the same thing. I would say that in no way was the auditor impeded in any way of carrying out her duties and I don’t know what more can be added. We have full confidence that the auditor has done her job and we will not be supporting this in any way. Thank you.
On Feb. 13, the public accounts committee met for what was scheduled to be their last session on the provincial auditor’s report into the GTH.
The meeting heard from Highways Deputy Minister Nithi Govindasamy and Global Transportation Hub CEO Bryan Richards, both of whom had appeared at the January meeting.
As recorded in Hansard, Nicole Sarauer vented frustration that the people she really wanted to hear from weren’t there.
Ms. Sarauer: —…We know that there are government employees who worked on this land deal who weren’t employees of either of your two offices, the GTH or the Ministry of Highways, so they wouldn’t have reported to either of the two of you. And we understand there’s only so much we can learn from you two gentlemen.
We’ve asked before to have relevant witnesses at committee. One of them was Laurie Pushor, who’s a special advisor to the government who now works at the Ministry of Economy. Time and time again, the government members of this committee have blocked him from coming. Pushor’s still employed by the government and it wouldn’t be hard to get him to the committee. He works just down the street and he makes, I believe, $220,000 of taxpayers’ money.
So I am going to ask again of government members, if you feel it necessary to conclude debate at 4 p.m. today, to bring Laurie Pushor to the committee.
Sarauer then moved to request Pushor appear as a witness of the Public Accounts Committee, but that motion had to be ruled out of order by chair Danielle Chartier, the NDP MLA for Riversdale. As committee chair, Chartier said she was bound by the earlier decisions of the committee against calling Pushor.
Deputy chair Larry Doke agreed with the chair’s ruling.
Mr. Doke: — Thank you, Madam Chair. No, I believe that this has been asked twice now and voted down both times. We’re still of the opinion that the Provincial Auditor has covered all those avenues of talking to the named people. So we won’t be supporting that.
The Chair: — Thank you, Mr. Doke. Ms. Sarauer.
Ms. Sarauer: — Well in light of that I suppose, Madam Chair, the auditor’s report, as we well know and we’ve discussed, it’s the result of a process audit. And the auditor has been very clear that the scope and intent of the audit was to look at processes for buying land at both the GTH and the Ministry of Highways.
Obviously we’ve seen a lot of issues and we’ve talked about a lot of issues, with how both the GTH and the Ministry of Highways use taxpayers’ money, especially in this particular instance. And the Auditor has rightfully highlighted those throughout her report. This is highly concerning and I want to address this again. I am particularly concerned that the members opposite are very inclined to continue to shut down debate and limit the officials that are here and that are being allowed to appear at committee.
… I’m sure, since I’m hearing so much about it from my constituents, that government members are also hearing about it from their constituents as well. And it’s sad to me that the government members continue to shut down debate. So I’m going to table one more motion, and I would urge that the members consider voting with their conscience and not voting on government or party lines.
Sarauer then moved to rescind a motion passed at the previous Jan. 12 meeting that the Feb. 13 meeting “conclude considerations of the recommendations in the Special Report: Land Acquisition Processes.”
Saskatoon Silverspring-Sutherland MLA Paul Merriman made it known he was unimpressed by the NDP tactics.
Hon. Mr. Merriman: — Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I’m very concerned in the process here. We’ve had two motions put forward to do . . . to not have somebody appear on behalf of the ministry. Now we’re having a motion to rescind which motion, first of all? Was it specific, a specific motion? . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.
That’s the concern. We’ve done this twice. We could keep going around on this over and over again. My concern is is that the auditor has done her investigation, and her team has done the investigation, as well as the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police], with the opposition’s request that the RCMP look into this. The RCMP’s currently investigating this as well. I think that we should allow them to do their work on this, and we should move on with the questioning. We have officials here in the room. We should move on with the questioning of these specific officials.
The Chair: — Thank you, Mr. Merriman. Mr. Doke.
Mr. Doke: — Thank you, Madam Chair. I would agree with what Mr. Merriman has said, but also we had an agreement on this motion between both sides of government here to conclude today’s recommendation. So that’s what we will be going for.
In the end the committee voted 6-1 to defeat Sarauer’s motion.
That meant there would be no more witnesses beyond Govindasamy and Richards. Despite all NDP efforts, Laurie Pushor never was called to appear before the committee.
The Feb. 13 meeting indeed wrapped up the public accounts committee’s consideration of the provincial auditor’s report on the GTH.
