Martha's Monthly - December 2005

Martha makes a Christmas list and checks it twice

If you are anything like Martha you have a Christmas gift list complete with a little budget to ensure you don’t go mad in the malls. Most of us have at least a fair idea of what we will spend on our friends and family. Martha has a group of friends who get together for dinner to celebrate Christmas and exchange $5 gifts. They can be used, traded, made, re-gifted, and even new. But they must not exceed the $5 budget limit. It makes it fun and keeps it all fair.

Governments make budgets for much the same reasons: to keep it fun and fair. Budgets forecast expenditures and revenues so that governments can plan their programs. In Alberta, the government tabled its 2005 budget on April 13, 2005. It called for $25 Billion in spending. That is like the little budget you make for your Christmas list (just with a few extra zeroes at the end). Now imagine that you took your little budget to the mall and while there you decided to throw out the budget and start spending like Santa.

Well that is what has happened during the 11 day Fall sitting of the Legislature: unbudgeted spending that has thrown caution (and the budget) to the wind.

Martha can’t remember this kind of wild abandon since the time in 1974 when she attended her first Yuckaflux party. Neither episode is all that dignified. Premier Klein in Fall 2005 looks like Santa on speed. Santa Klein and his Elves passed legislation authorizing unbudgeted spending in the order of $1.8 Billion dollars. (The correct name for these add-ons to the budget is Supplementary Estimates.) The $1.8 Billion is a fraction of the spending that will occur, though, as the surplus is over $7 Billion dollars this year.

The government devoted just three days of debate to the Supplementary Estimates, which involve 14 different departments and almost $1.8 billion. With a total of two hours set aside each day, it means $300 million was discussed every hour, or $5 million every minute. (Edmonton Journal November 20, 2005)

Here is what MLA Laurie Blakeman, Liberal Opposition House Leader, had to say about the scrutiny allowed in a few short hours of Supplementary Estimates debate:

“We were trying to debate one department every 17 minutes…. I mean, it is reaching the point of meaningless. Is this a deliberate move? Is the effect of this bill a deliberate move on behalf of government to make this meaningless and to make it – what? – laughable, make it trivial, make it unimportant, to support that claim that it’s none of our business how the government decides to spend that money?” (November 30, 2005 Debate 8:00pm)

While Martha gets a little peeved when she hears about huge expenditures rushed through debates she gets even more irate when she sees the total lack of work being done in the Legislature: committees that rarely meet and are made up of only government members, a session that lasts just 11 days, and a Premier that misses most of that. Martha can’t imagine being paid for a year of work and showing up for just 53 days of that year. (The legislature had sat for 42 days earlier in the year) But that is the total number of days that the Legislature sat this year. Granted, much of the work of Legislature takes place out of the debates during committee meetings. But in Alberta, our main committees are one-party ones. Alberta is the only province that has government committees. (Martha wishes to add, for the gentle reader, that committee membership brings with it a substantial increase in pay!) There are only 6 committees that Opposition members are allowed to sit on. A third of these committees never met.

So, in Alberta, our legislators have the dubious title of being the fastest spenders of money who sit for the fewest days per year. And almost none of the spending is scrutinized.

The Public Accounts Committee, which is charged with scrutinizing the Department budgets each year, only had enough meetings to get through 1/3 of the departments. Most departments’ spending never got one minute of scrutiny by the Opposition, the media, and Albertans. (And if anyone wonders what a Public Accounts Committee should do just think AdScam and Gomery)

Martha notes, however, that the uproar in Alberta has been a little, shall we say, under whelming. Have Albertans just become fatalistic about their government? Martha thinks not. She knows many hard working women who, when she tells them that Premier Klein attended 2 days of the last sitting, are shocked. They had no idea. Martha thinks that the muted response to the anti-democratic approach to governing in Alberta is born of lack of awareness of the problem. Since the legislature sits so rarely, it is hard for the Opposition parties to get out this message.

What should be happening? Well Martha had an idea. How about the government of Alberta starts to democratize a little?

If you think 53 days of work a year and $5 million of spending per minute is ridiculous then send the following letter on to Premier Klein. Albertans deserve a Christmas gift of a more democratic, transparent, and scrutinized government. Copy this letter to premier@gov.ab.ca, Alison.Crawford@assembly.ab.ca, newdemocrats@assembly.ab.ca, edmonton.riverview@assembly.ab.ca, edmonton.center@assembly.ab.ca, marthasmonthly@yahoo.ca (HINT: if you copy the whole list of addresses you can paste them to your TO: box in a separate email)

Premier Klein

December 8, 2005

Dear Mr. Klein:

Since the Marthas of Marthas Monthly last wrote to you, your government has had a full sitting of the Legislature. This 11-day session was so short that members were asked to debate Supplementary Estimates at breakneck speed.

I do not believe that the scrutiny of government expenditure should be something that is treated so lightly by your government. I was stunned to hear that spending nearly two Billion dollars took only a matter of hours. I believe that Albertans like me deserve to hear more debate about these expenditures and have a chance to contribute to the discussion through our MLA.

I call on you to make changes to your government’s House schedule so that you meet more days. I call on all MLAs to make these sessions their priority. I call on you for the reinstitution of all-party committees. Let committees meet outside of legislative sitting times and make them more effective by budgeting for each of them a researcher. See that the Public Accounts Committee meets throughout the year in order to get through all government departments. And please, Mr. Klein, stop spending so much money with so little planning. The unbudgeted surpluses need to be planned for and invested in quality programs for Albertans, not $400 cheques.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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