Premier Alison Redford is defending how the first quarter fiscal update was reported, and the decision to pull funding from a police training college in southern Alberta.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Redford addressed the province’s recent controversies.
The first quarter fiscal update – which was released on Thursday – reported the province is facing a deficit of up to $3 million, but it was a lack of a breakdown of the numbers in the update that had received particular criticism by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
"They have to report on the accuracy of the fiscal plan," Scott Hennig with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation had told CTV News.
"There is no balance sheet here, nothing on pension liabilities, no balance sheet."
The federation alleged that the province had broken its own laws by not releasing exact figures breaking down the government’s finances.
Finance Minister Doug Horner had said the government is taking a new approach to reporting the fiscal update.
"When I talk to the Auditor General and I talk to the chairman of the audit committee and I say this is ‘why I’m doing this,’ they both agree that this is a prudent approach to go. It’s going to mean that we will be able to provide Albertans with accurate numbers a lot sooner than we had in the past," Horner had said on Friday.
On Sunday, Redford said the province had done nothing wrong.
“To be clear, the auditor general was fully consulted with respect to the information that was presented,” Redford said.
“What we did was something which I thought was really important. It was an exciting opportunity to change the way that we present the information so that we get an absolutely clear snapshot in time… we are fully confident that there has been nothing that hasn’t been in compliance with the Act and more importantly the auditor general has said that and that’s good enough for me.”
Redford also defended the province’s decision to pull funding for the $122 million Alberta Public Safety and Law Enforcement Training Centre that was slated to open in Fort Macleod.
The province made the announcement on Wednesday – citing feedback that suggested a stand-alone training facility would be under-used and therefore would not be “financially viable.”
Redford said she had received a letter from police officials echoing those sentiments.
“It was very clear to me in the last three months working with stakeholders that what police officers and chiefs of police were saying was ‘we don’t need this project and in fact if this project was to go ahead, it wouldn’t be a priority for us and we wouldn’t use it,’” Redford said.
“In fact I received a letter from them three weeks ago.”
The centre was intended to train thousands of police and peace officers.
The town of Fort Macleod is now considering legal action against the province.
Officials say they have already spent close to $4 million into water and sewer lines to accommodate the training centre – based on agreements signed with the province.
