Question time

A classic example of why they call it Question Period, not Answer Period. Mr. Parsons thought he asked Mr. Openness Transparency-Accountability a simple question:

MR. PARSONS: My final question is for the Premier.

Premier, I have just asked five different ministers of your government about reports that are sitting in their offices, ranging up as much as fifteen months, and have not been released.

You yourself, Premier, said on March 3 that you would have government ministers search and find out whatever was sitting around in terms of reports; because there was a commitment made, first of all back in 2003, in terms of openness and accountability, that reports would be released within thirty days. It did not say that they would be called drafts. It did not say that they would have to be actioned, or action plans done on them, but that the reports would be released within thirty days. Right here today we see six examples of reports that have not been released; and, again, it has been forty-five days since you made that statement that they would be released.

Can you tell us what you are going to do? You make a commitment that you were going to do it in 2003, you made a commitment on March 3, and yet we have six examples in front of us where your ministers have not followed through.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: That is just simply not correct, Mr. Speaker.

The hon. member opposite never ceases to amaze me. The Minister of Finance got up today and did a Ministerial Statement basically indicating that we had been accredited as a Chartered Accountant training office. In that statement the minister said, "…this certification represents a positive step…."

MR. SPEAKER: I ask the Premier if he would not read from statements during Question Period, if he would refer to them, paraphrase them.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance basically said it was a positive step forward for the Province’s overall human resource requirements by expanding opportunities available to train professionals and basically employ students.

You stood up and said that this was absolute nonsense, that it does not matter, that we should not get graduates to come to the government to work. We should not train people. We should not cease out-migration. We should not encourage people to come to work for the government. You had better get your priorities straight.