The Auditor General Firing Fiasco (ctd)...Both Sides Are NOT Doing It.

Can'tWeAllJustGetAlong
VSunEdPageVille


Well, whadd'ya know.

According to an unbylined (and somewhat syntactically-challenged) piece in The Province yesterday, it would appear that BC Liberal Party MLA, and chair of the legislative AG Selection Committee, Mr. Eric 'How Do You Like My Office?' Foster has already dismissed the BC NDP's request to have the BCLib Party-dominate committee reconsider their decision to effectively fire John Doyle.

Despite this, and other clear signals from Shane Simpson and Adrian Dix, the VSun Editorial writers can't bring themselves to actually say that this actually all the BC Liberal Party's doing.

To wit:

...Doyle has been an outstanding auditor general. He has identified some serious issues, most recently uncovering the almost unbelievable mess in the running of the internal affairs of the Legislature.

Along the way, he has ruffled a lot of feathers. That is his job. There are thousands of public servants who are paid to quietly go along with politicians and senior civil servants. We need an auditor general who isn't afraid to create some heat.

Has he been confrontational to a fault? The government, and even the NDP on occasion, have dismissed some of his criticisms as being disagreements between accountants.

Maybe some are. But others - Doyle's refusal to allow the province to list debt from the $3.3-billion Port Mann Bridge as self-sustaining, for example - reflect the kind of issues that have led to the downfall of previous governments that have used a fun-with-figures approach to present a rosier view of their own performance. By all appearances, the Liberals on the committee have decided they don't want Doyle reappointed because he has embarrassed them one time too many. Like the Liberals, the New Democrats aren't talking, but party leader Adrian Dix says he expects his followers toed the party line and supported the reappointment of Doyle for a second term....



I mean, seriously, does the Postmedia braintrust actually think that folks are going to pay real money for this kind of pablumized codswallop when they can get all kinds of better stuff for free with the click of a mouse.

For example...

Independent MLA Bob Simpson, in his open letter to Mr. Foster, gets right to the heart of the matter from the get go.

Dear Mr. Foster:

I am writing in support of the reappointment of Auditor General John Doyle. As Chair of the Special Committee to Appoint an Auditor General, I respectfully request that at its next meeting the Committee revisit the decision to not reappoint Mr. Doyle as Auditor General.

Over the course of his term, Mr. Doyle has demonstrated the qualities required to uphold the integrity of this independent office. Public support and trust in Mr. Doyle’s work as Auditor General is apparent; by contrast, the Committee’s in camera decision to not reappoint Mr. Doyle has been met with vocal and widespread opposition.

As Committee Chair you have publicly stated there is no precedent for revisiting the decision to not reappoint Mr. Doyle. That statement is misleading. The Auditor General Act was changed in 2003 to specify a new procedure for the re-appointment of the Auditor General and this is the very first time this new procedure is being used. Therefore there can be no “precedent,” because the process is being tested for the first time. Your Committee is, in fact, establishing the precedent, and unfortunately it is one that clearly undermines the integrity and transparency of the legislative function in British Columbia...


The upshot of all this?

Well, given the BC Liberal Party's complete-and-total legislative stonewall, the ball is clearly in the public's court. Either we put the pressure on the ruling party, and its leader-in-hiding, that controls this committee or this AG goes the way of the Progress Board to make sure that there are no inconvenient truths unearthed when the 'Sycophants & Fixers For Christy' start cranking up their big money propaganda blitzkrieg for real in the next few weeks.

So.

What to do?

Well, we could start by signing Integrity BC's petition.....

...Here.


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