McNeil: NDP Using Advisory Panel For IEF As Political Cover
(Halifax, NS) Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil says the NDP government is playing games with the cabinet-controlled Industrial Expansion Fund by creating a powerless advisory committee."The Liberal Caucus has been calling on this NDP Government for months to cast off the veil surrounding the Industrial Expansion Fund and give Nova Scotians the confidence that their tax dollars are being invested properly," says McNeil. "What the NDP has done is simply create a powerless advisory committee which will only meet with the Minister twice a year and make recommendations which the Minister can then return to the cabinet table and simply ignore."
With $222 million flowing through the Industrial Expansion Fund last year alone, taxpayers deserve more transparency from this NDP Government. Recently the Auditor General complained he has been denied information about the Fund.
"This NDP government has a history of putting together panels or advisory groups to provide political cover for decisions," said McNeil. "This does nothing to increase accountability to the public about the way money is spent. Business decisions should be made by business people and not politicians and this new advisory committee fails to meet the expectations Nova Scotians have of transparency in Government.”
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