Three Sask. parties disappointed in decision not to audit $30M think-tank

It’s not just about public funds, but public health.

That’s why three political parties that don’t hold a seat in Saskatchewan are continuing to push for answers in light of the provincial auditor deciding not to audit the public-private partnership Communities of Tomorrow (CT), which came into existence in 2003 and ended in 2013.

Last week, Naomi Hunter of the Saskatchewan Green Party, Rose Buscholl of the Progressive Conservative Party and Michael Medby of the Saskatchewan Progress Party (formerly the Saskatchewan Liberals) sent a letter to provincial auditor Tara Clemett requesting an audit of the partnership.

Later that week, Clemett issued a media release saying she would not do so, saying the auditor did not see “significant risks around public money being provided by the provincial Government as a portion of the partnership back in 2003 and not being used for the purposes intended.”

“The Government’s decision to fund or not to fund certain entities, or implement research findings is a policy decision of the Government,” the release read. “Our Office’s mandate does not include assessing the appropriateness of Government’s policy decisions, rather we focus on the Government’s administration of public policy.”

On Tuesday, Buscholl said the decision was “very disappointing at the least.”

Communities of Tomorrow was intended to position Saskatchewan as a global leader in the field of municipal infrastructure innovation. A total of $34 million went towards it and it produced 10 studies about asbestos cement water pipes.

“I think it’s actually quite negligent that (the auditor’s office) won’t look into this seeing that we’re dealing with millions of dollars of taxpayer funds (as well as this being) a human health concern,” Buscholl said.

“This was set up initially to research the asbestos pipes and the studies that came out of it showed that ingesting asbestos is dangerous. Now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘No, there’s no problem here. There’s nothing to see here.’ So the fact that the auditor doesn’t even want to look at it is very negligent.”

Hunter agreed the issue isn’t being taken seriously.

“It seemed like (officials in the auditor’s office) really didn’t spend much time on a matter of this importance,” Hunter said. “It took them all of three or four days to get back to us saying that they weren’t going to pursue this.”

Hunter said the parties have sent a response to Clemett’s office asking her to rethink her decision.

“We would really prefer if she really looked into this a little bit closer,” Hunter said.

“Back when (CT) was set up, both the provincial and the federal government were admitting that the asbestos water main lines were a real health risk. They did 10 studies on this subject and now we don’t have access to those studies, they haven’t fixed the problem and Communities of Tomorrow was shut down shortly after a year later and rolled into SUMA and there’s no real accountabiulity as to what happened to the money that was set up to make this happen.”

Medby echoed those concerns.

“More than $34 million in public money flowed through the provincial funding entity. A large portion of that money was spent to find a solution to asbestos cement water pipes,” Medby said in a joint statement with the other two parties.

“The pipes still deliver water to hundreds of thousands of Saskatchewan residents. The money was supposed to turn Saskatchewan into an infrastructure innovation hub. That didn’t happen either.

“The auditor’s quick response to our call for a performance audit makes us question how seriously she looked into this issue.”