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2009 Jun 15 (Mon)

Returning Officer Appointments Day 2

Kevin Taft raises concerns about the method used to fill the positions of Election Day Officials

 

102 Alberta Hansard February 18, 2009

Returning Officer Appointments

 

Dr. Taft: Thanks, Mr. Speaker. From June to October 2007 the Chief Electoral Officer wrote repeatedly to the government asking for local returning officer nominees, and the government never even replied. Eventually the PC Party gave him a list of names heavily biased, of course, with PC Party members. My question is to the Deputy Premier, who was intimately involved in this process. How does he justify to this Assembly a policy in which written requests from an officer of this Assembly are ignored and a key responsibility for an election is handed over to a political party?

 

Mr. Stevens: Well, Mr. Speaker, I must admit that I was here during that time period, but I don't recall the specifics of the question. What I do however remember is that following the election, the hon. member who has asked this question was sufficiently distressed with the circumstances surrounding the election that I think he called for an investigation into the conduct of the officer. So I do note that you weren't particularly pleased with what was going on.

 

Dr. Taft: You know, Mr. Speaker, that was about as pathetic a response on a serious issue as this Assembly has ever seen. You should be ashamed of yourself. Again to the same Deputy Premier. When he finally got a list of

83 names, the Chief Electoral Officer discovered that only one person, 1 out of 83, had been contacted to see if they were interested in the position. How does this minister defend such a pathetic performance on such a crucial matter?

 

Mr. Stevens: Well, part of the difficulty I'm having in defending anything, Mr. Speaker, is that I don't have specifics of the particular event that the hon. member is asking about. It's incredibly difficult for me to respond to something that I don't at this particular point in time have any recollection of.

 

Dr. Taft: Ignorance is no defence, Mr. Speaker. This is shocking. This is a matter of profound public policy importance. This minister was intimately involved. He was the minister responsible. He is now the Deputy Premier.

Will the Deputy Premier tell this Assembly – maybe he can get his memory cells going – who it was in the PC Party he asked to provide names to the Chief Electoral Officer? If he won't tell us, why won't he tell us?

 

Mr. Stevens: Well, Mr. Speaker, what I can say about this hon. member is that ignorance is not a problem when it comes to asking questions in this House. That certainly is true. I can tell you that I do not answer questions that I don't have a factual basis to answer, and that is the situation I find myself in. The hon. member can say that I should know the answer, and perhaps I should, but I don't know the answer, hon. member, so I can't

provide you with one.

 

Date: Mon Jun 15 14:53:25 MDT 2009 changed by: Rebecca IP: 199.213.91.1