Opposition Leader Olive Crane took up the entire morning and early afternoon of Friday’s legislature session detailing her many concerns about the controversial Provincial Nominee Program.
When the report from the Standing Committee on Public Accounts was tabled Friday after question period, Crane stood to give her reaction to the report. As there is no time limit imposed on MLAs who wish to speak to a report tabled in the house, Crane held the floor for an hour and a half talking about the PNP.
This privilege has almost never been exercised in the P.E.I. legislature.
Crane wanted to bring attention to the work of the public accounts committee over the past several months as it has been reviewing the auditor general’s report on his investigation into the nominee program.
In his report, Younker points to a number of specific instances where he found rules were broken or sidestepped by PNP directors and other senior government officials. He found former PNP deputy Brooke MacMillan to be in a conflict of interest when he accessed and benefited from the program alongside his wife. He found six MLAs also accessed PNP units, five of which are currently sitting, and raised concern about whether they were in a conflict.
The conflict of interest commissioner has ruled they were not, but Younker still asked the legislative assembly to review the conflict rules to gain more clarity on the issue. In total, Younker had 20 recommendations after finding discrepancies in the PNP’s administration.
Throughout the public accounts committee’s meetings, Crane and committee chair Jim Bagnall have been trying to get more details about Younker’s findings. The public accounts committee does have jurisdiction to ask the auditor general for more details, despite privacy laws. Younker has told the committee he will tell them what he knows, but it must be a “committee decision,” meaning the request must be sanctioned by the whole committee.
For months, the Opposition has been asking for details about involvement of cabinet ministers, MLAs and their family members, deputy ministers and senior government officials in the program. Crane and Bagnall have been trying to get the names of the businesses that benefited greatly from rules being bent or ignored by administrators.
But the Liberal majority on the committee repeatedly votes down Opposition requests for this information.
On Friday, Crane went through every single motion she has tabled at the committee over the last few months in her attempts to not only get information from the auditor, but also in trying to get witnesses such as the minister, the premier and the federal officials to appear before the committee to testify.
She said the committee is ‘dysfunctional’ and that ‘gag orders’ have been placed on any information coming out.
“Public accounts is the highest committee of government. It’s our job to hold government accountable for the decisions they’ve made,” she said.
“In relation to the PNP program, we’re not functioning – we’re not doing our jobs for the people of P.E.I. so it was important for me to bring this to the floor of the legislature.”
She also went a step farther. She introduced a motion to bring the public accounts committee’s report to a committee of the whole house in the legislature for debate.
But in the end, every Liberal MLA present stood and voted to defeat Crane’s motion.