It would appear the provincial government is operating under the misconception that municipalities should do as the province says not as they do.
For years the province, in particular the Municipal Affairs department has sought to make municipal governments more transparent and above board in their dealings. Municipal councils are told they should be very selective in what they discuss behind closed doors and they better have valid reasons for going in-camera, or off the record, so as to always be as open as possible with the public.
Given that municipal governments and indeed, provincial governments, are elected by the public and funded by the public both should be open in their dealings.
It seems reasonable to expect that once a contract is in place, once negotiations have been finalized the public should be able to go to their local town or county office and find out just exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.
At the provincial level, Albertans should be able to find out just how much of their money is being spent on health care services. At the municipal level taxpayers can find out this information, they can find out what contracts the town or county has in place and what costs are associated with them.
Not so at the provincial level. A perfect example are the contracts negotiated between Alberta Health Services with various municipalities to provide ambulance service in the province.
Whether the province is gun shy about letting the public know just how much it is spending on a provincial take over of the service or if it believes it has some sort of special status when it comes to being open with the taxpayers, the bottom line is still the same, they are operating under one set of rules while insisting municipalities follow a different set of rules.
Municipalities have to adhere to confidentiality clauses in the contracts they sign with the province in order to deliver programs such as ambulance service.
When the Town of Coaldale recently decided to terminate its contract to provides ambulance service on behalf of the province elected officials were limited in what questions they could answer or comments they could make because of the confidentiality clauses in the contract with Alberta Health Services.
It’s understandable to have confidentiality clauses in place to protect patient information but the general public should be able to ask questions about how the service operated, what it costs to operate and why the town no longer wants to provide the service under contract for the province.
This double standard is not only unfair, it’s undemocratic.