Over the course of five auditor general reports on the government’s COVID-19 response, lawmakers appeared to become increasingly concerned by what wasn’t included in the reports. But auditor general Paul Martin says it may not be within his mandate to provide the type of scrutiny opposition MLAs are calling for.
After the first two reports, Green Leader David Coon said Martin had failed to dig deep enough, particularly into how and why decisions were made.
“It was less than thorough,” he told reporters in September.
“The auditor general doesn’t seem to have interviewed the key decision makers or those involved in decisions to really get a good feel about how things operated.”
But Martin told reporters after the final chapters of the audit was released on Friday that looking at the how and why of decision-making is outside of his mandate.
“Their policy and directives that they give, we don’t chime in on that,” he said.
Martin and his office began performing audits of various pieces of the government’s pandemic response in the spring of 2022 following a unanimously approved motion in the legislative assembly. The preamble of that motion may have laid the seeds of the conflict between what MLAs hoped would be examined and what the AG’s office has been able to present.
“Whereas there is tremendous benefit that can be gained from undertaking an extensive COVID-19 review which could examine which measures were effective and how additional measures might have assisted in reducing the transmission of the virus,” the motion reads.
However, Martin says his role is limited to digging into how policy is applied and implemented, not how and why it is formed.
“We audit against (policy), to see that it’s been delivered effectively to the taxpayers of New Brunswick or are there efficiencies and other matters that we can chime in on how they deliver on that,” he said.
PC backbencher Dorothy Shephard, who spent time as the minister of both health and social development during the pandemic, says she’s not sure the auditor general was equipped to answer the questions that many have about the government’s pandemic response.
“I think it’s important that we understand and have an opportunity to look at how decisions were made and were the decisions adequate enough to take care of what we were doing,” she said.
Liberal health critic Rob McKee said his party had previously tried to pass a motion calling for a public inquiry to no avail, and hoped that asking the auditor general to investigate may shine some light on some controversial decisions like removing restrictions before vaccine targets had been met and emails that show the chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell looking to retroactively find evidence to remove school masking requirements.
“If those types of decisions are not able to be properly assessed then perhaps another avenue might be better to explore a deeper dive into those decisions,” he said.
Green health critic Megan Mitton expressed her disappointment with the final batch of reports while questioning Martin during his appearance at the legislature’s public accounts committee, saying she “had higher hopes.”
“I’m afraid that lessons will not be learned, that this will all just end up being forgotten,” she said.
After the lacklustre reception of all five reports, both opposition parties say it’s time to resume calls for a public inquiry that would be able to shed light on the how and why of decisions made during the pandemic.
“I don’t think it does what we need done, I think we need a public inquiry,” Mitton said.
“I don’t think we have what we need to ensure that New Brunswickers are taken care of in a future pandemic.”
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