Edmonton – Official Opposition Finance Critic Hugh MacDonald says today’s report from the Auditor General shows that the government continues to fail Albertans in a number of ways, from its inability to budget to its failure to protect seniors and the food supply or to fight climate change. There are 42 recommendations that have been outstanding for three years or more and nearly 250 recommendations still outstanding in total.

According to the Auditor General, $60 million in offsets allocated to emitters has not been properly accounted for, leading to the possibility that Alberta’s carbon emission reduction targets have not been achieved.

“The best way to protect our energy industry is to show the world that we’re taking real action on reducing emissions,” MacDonald says. “But the government has no idea if it’s getting any value for the money. That’s very troubling.”

MacDonald is particularly concerned about the state of Alberta Treasury Branches, which according to the Auditor General is lacking in key systems and key controls to protect Albertans’ assets.

“Thousands of Albertans have significant investments in ATB,” MacDonald says. “The government needs to do a much better job of securing those assets.”

Speaking of assets, MacDonald notes that the government still isn’t estimating bitumen and gas royalties correctly.

“According to the Auditor General, there’s a ‘risk of financial misstatement’ if the Department of Energy doesn’t improve its method of measuring royalties,” MacDonald says. “That sounds fairly innocuous, but we’re talking about significant dollars, money that belongs to Albertans, money that pays for schools and hospitals, teachers and health care professionals, long-term care for seniors, roads and bridges. You can’t budget if you don’t have a full and accurate understanding of your revenues.”

“If this were a midterm report card, it wouldn’t be an F, but it would be just a grade above it,’” MacDonald concludes. “This report shows that the government still isn’t properly monitoring basic service standards at seniors care facilities, despite the fact that seniors have died in care. That recommendation is six years old now! They’re still not performing adequate food inspections, despite the serious health implications. And they still can’t budget to save their lives, nor are they correctly reporting royalty revenues. It’s sloppy, sloppy work – they’re failing the taxpayer.”

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