Bill to fire her should be thrown out, says auditor general

The Nova Scotia auditor general has asked the province to withdraw proposed legislation that would let the government fire her without cause.

Kim Adair, the auditor general (AG), said the new bill would take the independence away from the AG and censor any reports the government decides should not be made public.

“It’s normal that auditor generals and governments, from time to time, have differences of opinion. On occasion we agree to disagree. In those instances, in particular, you need an independent auditor general,” she told reporters Thursday morning.

The province’s AG is the government watchdog, investigating their operations to see where things could be improved. A recent report related to school violence shed light on how it has increased in the province and key things the province could change to reduce it.

The province accepted the recommendations in the report, Adair said, and that lead to the creation a new school code of conduct policy.

But the new bill proposed by the PCs would let them fire Adair without cause, so long as the house votes two-thirds in favour. The PCs currently hold 43 of 55 seats.

But it would also give the government power to keep those reports private, effectively censoring information meant for the public.

The PCs currently hold 43 of 55 seats.

Adair was hired under the previous Liberal government. During Houston’s first term as premier, she made several reports to his government, and the PCs accepted 1000s of recommendations from those reports.

Adair said she was blindsided by the bill, and her office doesn’t have legal experts, so she isn’t even sure of the full implications of it yet.

On Wednesday, Premier Tim Houston said the move would align Nova Scotia’s laws with those of other provinces.

But Adair says at least eight other AGs have protections from being fired without cause, meaning the AG must have significant performance issues in the role to be let go.

Adair said she met with government officials yesterday, but she wouldn’t say who attended the meeting.

While speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, she said several times that she does not want to speculate on what could happen if the bill goes through. She said right now she’s focused on today.

“I do not want to make this adversarial in any way. I think it’s important people know that I have made the request to withdraw the bill and to have the opportunity to consult and to address any concerns,” she said.

The Liberal party said they won’t support the bill.

Liberal MLA Ian Rankin, who is also a former premier, says his government also accepted several recommendations from the auditor general. They had a very collaborative relationship, he said.

“The combination of hiding reports and having the power to fire the auditor general is deeply problematic,” he said.