Wynne pushing transparency legislation

(Updated)

The minority Liberals introduced a bill today that would see all MPPs expenses made public. But with a possible Spring election looming, opposition party members are questioning the timing — saying the only thing made public today — is a game of politics.

There is no official date for the bill to be brought to the floor. It is unlikely that this will pass before the budget is introduced – which means that if the budget fails, this bill will never see the light of day.

For premier Kathleen Wynne, today’s announcement is about differentiating herself from Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government.

“I was going to govern differently, that we were going to open up, be more transparent, that is what we’re doing.”

What this legislation will do is:

• require mpp’s to disclose all expenses online;
• expand the role of the ombudsmen to include oversight of cities, school boards, and public universities;
• and give government officials the power to cap the expenses of senior public employees.

Wynne is expecting all-party support for the legislation.

Currently the leaders of both opposition parties already make their expenses public voluntarily. While Wynne says this legislation will ensure all MPPs are held accountable by this, the threat of an election has opposition members calling this nothing more than a political ploy.

NDP house leader Gilles Bisson: “It’s because they want everyone to look over here and not at their record of what they’ve done over the past 10 years.”

This proposed legislation comes after scandals like Ornge where CEO Chris Mazza received a salary of over a million dollars and of course the gas plant scandal, which will cost taxpayers over a billion.

PC leader Tim Hudak’s pointed response: “this is the most corrupt government possibly in the history of the province of Ontario.”

“You actually want transparency and accountability in government, change the government.”

Political science professor Nelson Wiseman says that the move to accountability and transparency is a little late, and will not resonate with voters when larger issues like public transit loom large.

“The last thing I think you could win an election on is ‘vote for us because we’re gonna compel MPPs to put their expenses online’.”

Wiseman says that the hot button issue going forward is public transit and the concept of dedicated funding. He says that transparency would fall flat as voters are more concerned with traffic and getting to work on time than what their MPP is spending.