Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley says proposed legislation to clean up government is hollow because it’s written in a way to allow for quick changes in secret.
“Jim Prentice’s accountability legislation is the classic example of something which is all hat, no cattle. He promised big and delivered very little,” Notley said at a legislature news conference Tuesday.
“If this is the pattern that we’re going to see from this premier, then we actually have some current trust issues that need to be dealt with.”
The Alberta Accountability Act was introduced in the legislature Monday.
Prentice promised new legislation to eliminate government greed, cronyism and entitlement, so that Albertans can move on from the spending excesses of former premier Alison Redford.
Among the changes, there are to be new rules to ensure a level playing field for companies bidding for government work.
There are also to be limits on how much severance can be paid to political staff.
However, both of those changes are not part of the legislation, but instead are to be Treasury Board directives.
Notley said that means Prentice and his fellow Progressive Conservatives who run the Treasury Board could amend those directives behind closed doors and whenever they wished.
It also means Prentice has failed to come through on his promise to put the changes in legislation, she said.
