Auditor general’s comments cross line

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2023 (903 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I have written around 1,500 columns and op-eds over the past four decades. Many contained advice and suggestions directed toward the provincial government in power at the time each column was written, but only a few of those recommendations were ever implemented by those governments.

That’s par for the course for political columnists and editorial writers. We generally don’t expect governments to act on our suggestions, and are pleasantly surprised when they do. What we are really doing is reserving the right to say, “I told you so” months or years down the road, when something bad happens that could have been prevented if our advice had been followed.

In hindsight, maybe my columnist colleagues and I have been going about this all wrong. Perhaps we should be demanding that a legislative committee summon representatives of the various provincial government departments that have ignored our advice, forcing them to explain why they had the gall to do so.

I’m kidding. That would be a ridiculous, over-the-top “diva demand” that would reek of ego and a delusional misunderstanding of our minor role within the democratic process.

That brings us to the press release, YouTube video and report issued by Manitoba auditor general Tyson Shtykalo last week, in which he expressed his disappointment over the low implementation rate of recommendations issued by his office in recent years.

The press release included this sentence: “For reports with many outstanding recommendations, Shtykalo encouraged the public accounts committee to call the responsible entities to a committee meeting to discuss the lack of progress.” Similar wording is found in both the video and report.

The release ends with Shtykalo saying, “It’s important that audited entities be held accountable for implementing these recommendations.”

Held accountable by whom? Legislature libraries across Canada are full of reports from auditors general, judicial inquiries, public inquiries, commissions of inquiry and many other investigative bodies, many of which contain recommendations that have never been implemented.

That’s the way the democratic process works in Canada. Governments often seek the advice of various bodies, but it is solely within the power and discretion of each government to decide which (if any) recommendations it will implement. Nobody, not even an impatient auditor general, has the power to force a government to enact laws or regulations.

Shtykalo acknowledges that “things were exceptionally challenging for a couple of years due to the pandemic, but I did expect to see more progress implementing our recommendations.” How reasonable was that expectation?

During the pandemic, most government departments were shuttered and staff worked from home. That severely limited their ability to collaborate on the implementation of Shtykalo’s recommendations, let alone conduct the stakeholder, multi-departmental and multi-jurisdictional consultations many recommendations required prior to implementation.

For example, many recommendations made as part of Shtykalo’s review of foster home management were directed at the Families department and eight CFS agencies, including First Nations and Métis agencies. If implemented, the recommendations would impact every CFS agency in the province.

Given the massive level of consultation and collaboration that would be required between the provincial government and all those agencies, and possibly the federal government, was it reasonable to expect significant progress during the pandemic lockdown?

Another example is the delayed implementation of recommendations made after the AG’s review of oversight of Manitoba’s seven post-secondary institutions. How realistic was it to expect bureaucrats in the short-staffed higher education department to quickly conduct (during a pandemic) the many consultations that would be required in order to implement the recommendations affecting those universities and colleges?

By petulantly demanding that government officials be brought before the public accounts committee to explain why so few of his recommendations have been implemented, Shtykalo appears to be implying that the government is legally obligated to implement his suggestions. If that is his position, he’s wrong.

He is also implicitly suggesting that neither the government nor the opposition parties are doing their jobs properly. With a provincial election looming, that is a dangerously partisan position to take.

Over the past several decades, Canadians have seen auditors general attempt to insert themselves into the electoral process with bombastic reports and sound bites. Let’s hope Shtykalo’s comments aren’t the latest example.

Deveryn Ross is a political commentator living in Brandon.

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Twitter: @deverynross