Mayor Wayne Wright believes the City of New Westminster has nothing to fear from a new Municipal Auditor General, while Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan thinks it's a huge waste of money.
Ida Chong, community, sport and cultural development minister, recently told municipal politicians attending the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention that the provincial government committed to creating and funding an Office of the Municipal General in B.C.
"While the details are still being developed, we know that the Municipal Auditor General will conduct a limited number of value-formoney performance audits every year," she said in a press release. "The purpose of performance audits is to help local governments in their stewardship of community assets, to identify best practices, and to provide another measure of transparency and accountability for taxpayers."
Chong cited examples such as whether a new water conservation campaign is achieving its objectives of reducing water consumption during peak summer usage, and if a municipality could optimize its
fire services by delivering the services itself or through a contract with a larger adjoining municipality.
"We are fortunate in our city because we haven't had any problems," Wright said. "We don't have anything to hide."
Wright said he would have preferred that the province consulted with municipalities beforehand, as they may have been able to provide some input that would have been helpful to the province.
Wright said the proposal "didn't fly well" with the majority of municipalities represented at the convention in Vancouver.
"It's not that people want to be negative," he said. "It's like the HST - how it's done."
Wright said municipalities are also worried about potential costs related to the municipal auditor general.
"I am concerned if there is any cost," he said. "I certainly would have liked some consultation."
Corrigan told the Burnaby NOW that it's a waste of money to spend millions establishing a new Municipal Auditor General's office. He said it is redundant to create the new position, when it could be covered by the inspector of municipalities or by expanding the auditor general's role.
"There's no problem that's been identified," he said. "It is simply the premier trying to gain some cheap political points by pointing a finger at the municipalities and saying they aren't well run. Exactly the opposite is true."
City councillor Bob Osterman noted that the City of New Westminster's financial department has received awards for its financial practices.
"We get audited every year. To me an audit examines things, looks at processes, looks at efficiencies," said Coun. Bob Osterman. "Our auditor comes in every year. They do exhaustive guidelines."
Coun. Betty McIntosh said Chong assured municipal officials that the Municipal Auditor General won't cost municipalities. Rather than auditing all municipalities, she said the office's role would be to do selective audits aimed at finding efficiencies.
