Provincial government progress tracker goes offline

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This article was published 04/08/2023 (1036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba government website tracking progress on key provincial initiatives has gone dark, setting off accusations the Tories have reneged on commitments to transparency and accountability.

The Progressive Conservative government launched a public online dashboard in late 2019 to measure its progress in four areas: quality of life, working smarter, public service, and value for money.

However, the dashboard was taken down in early March.

Visitors to the website are now met with a message stating, “The global pandemic has presented exceptional circumstances. As a result, the MB Measuring Progress site requires update.”

A relaunch of the website is expected later this year, the message states.

“There’s no more information in respect of any of the key priority areas,” NDP house leader Nahanni Fontaine said Friday, as the Opposition held a news conference to bring attention to the obsolete web page.

The St. Johns MLA argued the dashboard was a valuable resource for Manitobans. and voters should be able to review whether the government has met its goals on education, justice and health care before heading to the polls Oct. 3.

“We want to encourage (Premier) Heather Stefanson and her PCs to give us the numbers, give us the measures on these key priority areas, so Manitobans have the information that they need when they go and cast their vote,” Fontaine said.

In 2019, the Tory government billed the dashboard as a demonstration of its commitment to transparency and accountability. It used balanced scorecards to measure the effectiveness of government policy in delivering desired outcomes, which the public could review.

It would also allow the government to monitor departmental progress and ensure staff were supported to meet priorities, according to a release.

“We want taxpayers to hold us to account on our goals and align priorities to what matters to Manitobans,” then-Kirkfield Park MLA and finance minister Scott Fielding said when the balanced scorecard system was announced.

An archived version of the website from December 2022 indicated Manitoba was not on target for emergency department wait times, net migration or timely access to the courts.

Fontaine said the NDP only recently became aware the dashboard had been pulled down.

The New Democrats will outline their commitments to government reporting, transparency, and accountability as part of the general election campaign, she said. “Manitobans deserve access to the information that affects their lives and affects where our province is going.”

In a statement, a provincial spokesperson said several government departments raised concerns with the dashboard earlier this year.

Metrics established to track progress were developed between five and six years ago, and were no longer effective or applicable to the work underway, the spokesperson said.

A review is ongoing and new scorecards are in the works.

“Performance measures continue to be tracked and monitored by each department and are carefully reported on in the annual reports,” the statement reads.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca