Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec says she was as surprised as anyone by the auditor general’s damning report released last week, but does not believe it reflects on the government as a whole.
“I’m not happy that this happened; I’m very sickened by it,” she said last Friday. “But this is not endemic in the government and that’s not the way I operate.”
Former premier Alison Redford resigned her seat as MLA last Wednesday, one day before auditor general Merwan Saher released a 68-page report following an investigation into some of Redford’s questionable use of taxpayer money during her tenure in the province’s top job.
The report revealed, among other things: that Redford used government aircraft for partisan and personal travel, that those flights were often booked with false passengers to allow the premier to travel alone or with a small entourage, that she took expensive first-class commercial flights and stayed in fancy hotels, and that there is little or no paper trail to justify many of these expenses.
Kubinec joined the chorus of other Progressive Conservative Party members in laying the blame squarely at the former premier’s feet.
“I believe that what the auditor general said was this was the work of one office, not the whole government, and I totally agree with him on that,” she said.
But while the report is stirring up a great deal of controversy in the provincial capital, including the calls from opposition parties for finance minister Doug Horner’s resignation — his department oversees the government aircraft fleet — it’s not likely to have any significant impact on this riding.
“I’m not happy with what happened, but certainly those were not my practices at all,” Kubinec said. “I don’t see that it should impact our day-to-day life in Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock.”
It could, however, have a bearing on the party’s current leadership race depending on how the candidates react to the revelations — Kubinec suggested the appropriate reaction would be to ensure that checks and balances are put in place and that infractions are dealt with.
The party itself has accepted responsibility for some of Redford questionable expenses, announcing last week it would pay back some of the costs of having Redford travel to party events on the government dime. “The PC party has said they’re going to reimburse the $6,500, approximately, for the cost of some flights,” she said. “They want to do the right thing, and I feel confident that all three of those candidates want to do the right thing as well.”
And as for the potential fallout in terms of the party’s chances in the next election — currently scheduled to take place some time in the spring of 2016 — she said it’s too soon to say what might happen.
“I don’t want to speculate on that … I just want to do my work,” she said. “There have been mistakes made, they have been brought to the light, they need to be dealt with and we need to continue to grow this amazing place, Alberta.”
The auditor general’s report can be viewed in full at the Office of the Auditor General website: www.oag.ab.ca.
