An open question to the Fiscal Four. Please respond.
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 9:07AM This story, which basically outlines how Alberta PC MLA's are paying themselves up to $35,000 to chair and attend private committee meetings is alarming and deserves serious public scrutiny. I am all for a policy of fair pay for fair work. Attracting the best and brightest into politics demands paying an attractive salary. Make no mistake, paying $100 - $150k for a thought leader or visionary is perfectly fine with me.
But the problem with this issue is the secrecy behind these meetings. Not making the minutes of these meetings public, and not allowing Non-PC MLA's to sit on these committee's is practically criminal. Business owners; would you allow your employees to create special committee's amongst themselves, pay themselves handsomely, and then never disclose to you the boss what was being said in the meetings? Honestly, it is outrageous.
So, my brief and deliberate questions is this. What are the Fiscal Four doing about this? I am calling you out right now, and I think you should answer. This quote from Jonothan Dennis, MLA for Calgary Egmont, is antagonizing me this morning, and I want him or one of the fiscal four to speak to us Albertan's.
Denis, parliamentary assistant to the Energy minister, believes the cost cutting has to start at home. He returned $10,000 of his riding budget to the province last year and hopes to do the same this year.
"The idea isn't to be caustic toward our own government. It's to hold ourselves to account like the Deep Six did 15 years ago," said Denis, MLA for Calgary-Egmont. "We'd like to make sure the government sticks to its financial plan."
Folks, it's time to force some accountability into our government. It's not enough to shout into a vacuum, we need to start to pick out those who have committed to working for us, and see how they will respond.
ABLEG, Alberta, Fiscal Four, PC Party in Alberta 
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Reader Comments (5)
Chris, great question!!! I like your analogy. When I worked for you, I often tried to think of ways to set up committe's of one and pay myself extra cash. It was unfortunate for me that you were too smart and I knew you would first congratulate me on my initiative, kick my ass and let me know I was lucky I wasn't fired. It seems to me that our government does not have a boss that will kick their ass when it is clear they are trying to screw the boss over. I agree that we need to pay to get good people, however, when these "good" people basically steal from their employer, its time to call them on it.
Our political leaders need to understand that they cannot ask Albertans to tighten their belts as they let their belts out a notch. The day is coming, hopefully, when their boss decides enough is enough and fires their sorry asses. I do believe there are good people in the PC party, but they are worried that if they stand up and speak out, they will be ostracized by their party. SO!!! Use your moral compass, let Albertans know that you know the difference between right and wrong. At the end of the day, "it is better to die a poor but honest man, than to die rich and despised.
I am interested in seeing if the Fiscal Four will have the balls to reply to your question. They may, but I think if they do, the answer will be less than adequate. I am issuing a challenge to my MLA (Doug). Please reply to this question with your own words and not with PC political doublespeak.
I just looked at the quote - I have no idea why it's antagonizing. Denis said he's found $10,000.00 in savings in his office and is sending it back to the taxpayer. Now, let's be clear, I'm sure he could find double that but at least he's holding himself to account first before casting stones.
Chris, it seems like you just have a hate on for Denis.
Brent:
Firstly, I should be clear. I don't have a hate-on for Denis. In fact I had commented in an earlier post that I will step-back from pre-judging him from my initial impressions. Also, I commend his statement of returning savings from his office, but it must then be clear that was a quote pulled directly from an article where he was applauding himself him for his fiscal hawkishness, and his willingness to take on his own government like the Deep Six did before him.
Obviously, that is why I bolded that part of the statement. The bolded statement is what has me feeling antagonized. If Jonothan Denis is not sitting on one of those secret committees, or he and the fiscal four come out against secret committee's, then I will be the first to applaud them.
Hence the question, and the request for them to respond. I doubt they will, which is fine. But they will see a doubled set of questioning from me and the social media community when they go on parade again in the future talking about how they are our internal watchdogs, renegades who are holding their government to account.
I just checked on the assembly's website and these amounts aren't tax free (like Braid claimed on his blog) and haven't gone up since many of these guys have been elected. I just don't see the inconsistency at all with the group's stated objectives (which I think could stand to go a lot further, actually). My two cents.
As a general principle I like the idea of paying MLA's who sit on committees more than MLA's who don't. If the committees are dealing with sensitive material, such as government strategy and planning, then I don't have a particularly big problem with the minutes being kept private. It's not like the committees themselves are big secrets as they appear on the government websites and I thought everyone knew they existed.
I think we have a problem if all parties are not granted a similar opportunity. The concept of opposition policy committees may seem ridiculous given the numerically-challenged (and policy-deficient) opposition, but if they wanted to have these committees would they be paid? If not, I think there are a bunch of Tory MLA's who have accounts payable to the taxpayer because that's garbage.