If the
Auditor General starts the investigation of wetlands capping as requested by
the Public Accounts Committee, then she will be acting illegally.
The Auditor
General has no authority to conduct a review requested by the Public Accounts Committee
of the House of Assembly under any provincial statute, regulation, or constitutional practise.
Section 16
of the Auditor General is explicit about the subjects that the Auditor General
may review, if requested by either the Lieutenant Governor in Council, the House of Assembly, or the Public Accounts Committee. They are:
- [matters] relating to the
financial affairs of the province or to public property, or
- inquire into and report on a person or organisation that has received financial aid from the government of the province, or in respect of which financial aid from the government of the province is sought.
In August 2019,
Crosbie asked the Public Accounts Committee of the legislature to look into why
the environment department had not issued a permit for wetland capping. Specifically, Crosbie asked for an
investigation of a “breakdown in communication that resulted in the flooding of
the Muskrat Falls reservoir in violation of an agreement between the Government
of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Innu Nation, the Nunatsiavut Government,
and the NunatuKavut Community Council to abide by the recommendations of the
Independent Expert Advisory Committee, which directed that wetland capping must
precede any such flooding. ”
There is no
way that the plain English meaning of section 16 can be stretched to cover a
“breakdown in communication” of any kind. Crosbie tried to make the issue a
financial one by noting in his letter to the Public Accounts Committee that the
government allocated $30 million for wetland capping and some it had been
spent.
