Premier Tim Houston’s supermajority government could fire Nova Scotia’s top watchdog and censor her office’s reports as early as next week. The development comes just weeks before provincial auditor general Kim Adair is set to share the findings of her investigation into university funding in Nova Scotia.
The audit, scheduled for release on March 4, will examine how the Department of Advanced Education is “effectively funding, monitoring and holding universities accountable for public funds.” But it could be limited—or shelved indefinitely—if an omnibus bill passes through the legislature before then.
On Tuesday, Feb 18, Houston’s government introduced the Government Organization and Administration Act–Bill 1–which includes sweeping changes to how the provincial government behaves and is held accountable.
As first reported by The Canadian Press, the proposed amendments to the Auditor General Act would introduce a two-week minimum timeline for the AG to share any reports with the government before they’re released to the public and give the Progressive Conservative supermajority in the legislature the ability to fire the auditor general “for reasons other than cause”—which could be interpreted to read as any reason the government likes, or no reason at all—“or incapacity.”
This is the first piece of legislation introduced into the spring session of the House of Assembly, which is the first sitting of the House since the provincial election in November saw the Tories’ share of seats increase to 43 out of a possible 55—well above the two-thirds they would need under the amended Auditor General’s Act to fire the AG without cause. Currently, there are nine NDP MLAs, two Liberal MLAs and one independent MLA in the House.
Bill 1 also includes a change made a week ago when the province axed its non-partisan communications wing in Communications Nova Scotia. And it diminishes Nova Scotians’ rights under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, giving the province the power to restrict applicants “from requesting records without sufficient particulars” and allowing the head of a public body to “disregard frivolous or vexatious requests for access to records.” (The bill does not elaborate on what would qualify as a “frivolous” or “vexatious” request.)
This bill would need to move through several stages before it’s passed into law, including two more readings in the House and committee debates before it could receive royal assent. However, with Houston’s supermajority, this could all happen by next week.
Nova Scotia is home to 10 universities, which are projected to receive more than $482 million in grants from the Department of Advanced Education for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, as determined by the University Accountability and Sustainability Act and one-year bilateral agreements that expire at the end of the fiscal year between the Department of Advanced Education and each university. As laid out in the province’s 2025-26 budget, Nova Scotia’s universities are estimated to receive more than $465 million in grants next year. That includes nearly $380 million in operating grants for all 10 schools, more than $41 million in program-specific grants and just over $28 million in scholarship and bursary grants for students.
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The Coast contacted the AG’s office about the implications of these changes should the House pass the bill at the first opportunity. Amy Pugsley, the communications manager for the Office of the AG, confirmed by email that Adair was not consulted on the changes announced in the omnibus bill. Pugsley wrote that Adair had subsequently requested a meeting with the government “to understand the impact to the independence of the Office of the Auditor General and its operations.”
On Wednesday, as reported by CBC’s Jean Laroche, Adair was at a public accounts committee meeting. The public accounts committee is where members dig into the findings and recommendations of the auditor general’s reports following their release. This process allows committee members to ask questions of Adair and the witnesses from whichever government departments are called to respond to a given audit.
This is how it worked last June when Adair released an audit on school violence, which included a series of recommendations for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
A week later, the public accounts committee debated the audit’s findings and recommendations with six witnesses, including the deputy minister of education and the Nova Scotia Teachers Union School president.
Following the meeting, CBC News asked Adair how Tuesday’s amendments would affect her job. She said, “I don’t see how I could do it under those conditions because I would not be independent and objective.”
The committee also changed its own rules on Wednesday, casting another shadow on the firmness of a March 4 release date for Adair’s audit of university funding, reporting and accountability. With the help of the committee’s PC majority membership, the committee will no longer meet when the House is in session. It’s yet to be determined how long the spring session will last, as there’s still a whole provincial budget to get through, along with bill briefings and debates.
MLA and interim leader of the Liberal Party, Derek Mombourquette, sits on the Public Accounts Committee. Speaking with reporters at the legislature on Wednesday, he said the Houston government has been “consolidating power” and that preventing the Public Accounts Committee from meeting during the legislature is “because they don’t want to answer questions in the House on the reports that are coming forward by the auditor general.”
Asked about whether the March 4 audit on universities is at risk of being censored by any of these changes, Mombourquette said “I’m concerned of when we’re going to actually have that conversation because now we have two things happening: we’re not meeting during the legislative sitting, which is going to push every report back; and I’m concerned about the independence of the auditor general.”
He told reporters that his caucus will “continue to advocate to ensure the independence [of the office] is there” and said, “I hope the premier and the government change their mind on the legislation.”
The minister of advanced education and House leader, Brendan Maguire, also spoke with reporters on Wednesday (following a briefing on another omnibus bill introduced into the House that will change how universities are governed.) He poured cold water on concerns that his government would fire Adair or censor her upcoming audit on university funding before it could be released to the public on March 4.
Adair met with government officials on Wednesday, although details of that meeting haven’t been shared. On Thursday, Feb 20, Adair will hold a news conference at her office.
This article appears in Feb 1-28, 2025.
This is some very Trumpy behaviour. Are the Tories copying from the Republicans’ work?