The government and Opposition have agreed to provide greater transparency around MLA and caucus information that is already public.
The next step, potentially, is increased disclosure of information that is currently kept under wraps.
On Tuesday, Saskatchewan Party and NDP members of the legislature’s Board of Internal Economy approved a motion to post on the Internet MLA’s constituency office expense and conflict of interest declaration reports, caucus disclosure reports and minutes of Board of Internal Economy meetings.
Those documents are already made public but until now have been kept on file only in the clerk of the legislative assembly’s office or in MLA constituency offices themselves.
"It gives easier access to the public. The public doesn’t have to go out and look for it or know specifically what to ask for, they can go online. So I think it adds a greater level of accountability to MLAs," said Saskatchewan Party board member — and justice minister — Don Morgan in an interview.
The move was not a surprise as MLAs had previously suggested they would be willing to put the information on the Internet when the issue had been raised by the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation advocacy group.
However, an area where provincial politicians have said they would be willing to actually increase disclosure — the approximately $2 million provided to the government and Opposition caucuses — was not on the board’s agenda Tuesday.
While all other aspects of government expenditure such as salaries and payments to suppliers over $50,000 are released in public accounts, funding provided to the caucuses is only broken down in areas of expenditure, such as salaries, with no details of how the money is spent.
However, the NDP’s Kevin Yates said the Opposition would bring a motion on greater disclosure of caucus expenses to the next meeting.
We do need to spend more time on this issue and be as open and transparent as we expect others to be. There should be no special reporting for ourselves or our caucuses. These are all public funds and now we’ve reached a time when openness and transparency is clearly being required," he said in an interview.
Morgan said it was an idea that merited further discussion and said there was likely little reason the information could not be disclosed.
As for the other documents, legislature clerk Greg Putz said work will begin posting them online as staff are available.
While a small amount of work needs to be done, Putz said putting the documents on the Internet will ultimately be more convenient on the administrative side because staff will no longer have to oversee the researchers, journalists and members of the public who use the documents in his office.
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