Smith vows reversal of expense receipt disclosure change after backlash
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she will reverse a recent change that removed requirements for senior officials to publicly disclose receipts for expenses over $100.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she will reverse a recent change that removed requirements for senior officials to publicly disclose receipts for expenses over $100, revealing that the change was intended to target something else and got lost along the way.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is celebrating Smith quickly committing to reversing the policy.
“Smith is doing the right thing by taking this bull by the horns as soon as she got back from Mexico and committing to correcting this weird situation,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Alberta taxpayers need to know if government officials are renting Corollas or Corvettes on their dime.”
A policy in place since 2012 was quietly altered on August 1st, ending the requirement for ministers, senior staff, and other officials to proactively post receipts for taxpayer-funded expenses over $100. The change also removed eight years of expense records from the provincial website, placing them behind a paid freedom-of-information process.
The change was made while Smith was on a trip to Mexico, which she returned from on Wednesday. The following night, she was asked about it at the Alberta Next town hall in Edmonton.
The question followed backlash from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Albertans.
One attendee of the town hall asked Smith, “I just want to ask you one quick thing about taxes and transparency. A lot of tax waste in the federal government. I just heard this week that we have removed the transparency on the internet for the Alberta government for over $100. Could you please be responsible to taxpayers or explain why?”
“I can't because I'm confused by that too. So we're going to be discussing that memo when we go to Cabinet on Tuesday. The issue that Cabinet discussed was that there are a number of my ministers who go to the same hotels when they're frequenting different municipalities, and they just wanted the name of the hotel redacted just in case people were tracking them down and following them,” said Smith. “That was what the policy was supposed to be. It turned out to be something quite different. So, we're going to see if we can try to track down how that happened and do a reversal on that.”
Previously, the rule allowed anyone to see the receipts without paying a freedom-of-information fee and having to wait months to see the documents.
“Alberta has some of the strongest transparency rules and grassroots taxpayer protection laws in North America, and we must always be vigilant to keep it that way,” said Sims. “We are pleased to see the premier taking swift action to correct this and to make sure taxpayers can see how their money is being spent.
Smith and her cabinet are meeting on Tuesday, when they will review and, according to her, reverse the change, while trying to determine how things went wrong and how it happened in the first place.
“Taxpayers will be watching the cabinet meeting closely,” said Sims.