News notes
After filing a freedom of information request with the province and receiving mostly blanked-out documents Public Interest Alberta (PIA) is calling on the auditors general of Alberta and Canada to investigate how the province uses federal money designated for child care. “It’s an issue of accountability and transparency” says PIA executive director Bill Moore-Kilgannon. “If there’s federal dollars going into child care those dollars need to be there and they need to be accounted for.”
In December the organization filed the request with the province to find out what happened to $25.9 million the federal government gave the province last year to create child-care spaces. “We had heard from people inside government that the money had just been put into general revenues but we had no proof” says Moore-Kilgannon. In early February he was told his request couldn’t be delivered in the usual 30-day time period. He finally received the documents on March 3 — election day. Moore-Kilgannon says more than 80 per cent of the documents are blanked out. “They cut out huge amounts of the information” he says.
Moore-Kilgannon suspects much of the money went into general revenue but wants to know exactly how much went where. “It’s critical that these taxpayer dollars are going into the programs that they’re supposed to be” says Moore-Kilgannon. “Otherwise why have a budget?” (JK)