Gomery report recommendations need to be implemented in Manitoba

Given what Manitobans' have seen with the Crocus Fund fiasco and the mess at the Workers Compensation Board, it's clear that a number of the recommendations in the final Gomery report need to be implemented in Manitoba to improve the accountability and the performance of the provincial government.

In fact, I think that if some of the Gomery recommendations had been in place in Manitoba, these NDP scandals might have been avoided in the first place.

First, it is clear that the activities and functions of Legislative Committees in Manitoba need to be improved. The Public Accounts Committee in particular needs to have its own research, legal, and administrative staff. Legislative Committees need to be provided with the mandate to review appointments to major boards of directors in Manitoba which are currently only screened by NDP politicians and their political staff.

There also needs to be significant improvements to prevent queue-jumping in the provincial civil service by NDP political appointees. We need to protect the professional integrity of the civil service from undue political interference.

Finally, there needs to be a clearer definition of what is non-partisan government advertising. In the lead-up to the last provincial election, we saw the NDP using government advertising (or more accurately, taxpayer-financed advertising) in a way that many thought was partisan. There has to be clear rules and guidelines in place to prevent governments from using taxpayer-financed advertising for partisan political purposes.