Public accounts committee reverted to role as government watchdog
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Claudia Chender, the MLA for Dartmouth South and one of two New Democrats on the nine-member committee, said in an interview her party is pleased to see the committee apparently restored to the way it had been doing business.
‘Time will tell how things fall out and there still is some discretion in the committee,’ Chender said.
The public accounts committee is meant to function as a non-partisan committee,’ she said. ‘Obviously, that’s a challenge in any area of government but really, it’s an opportunity for us to represent the public and ask questions about government expenditures.’
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Chender said the additional meetings and the opportunity to hear agenda items other than those directly related to auditor general reports will provide for the proper accountability questions to be directed to the proper government department witnesses.
Public accounts meetings run for two hours and an equal amount of time is allotted for each of the three caucuses to question witnesses. The topics to be discussed in committee during public meetings come from MLAs, along with topics that are related to the auditor general’s reports.
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The committee voted in favour of bringing the Island Employment issue to a subsequent meeting.
‘It fits the broad parameters of something that the committee should interest themselves in and we’ll be able to hear more topics like that,’ Chender said.”