Kris Sims is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.Albertans expect and deserve transparency from their government and Premier Danielle Smith knows that very well.A bizarre story erupted on Monday morning with the CBC reporting that the Alberta government had made an inexplicably dumb move and stopped proactively disclosing receipts for the expenses of government officials.The change meant that itemized receipts were no longer required to be posted online for all taxpayers to see.If the government is spending your money to rent a car, an itemized receipt tells you if it’s on a Corvette or a Corolla.After the change, if any taxpayer wanted to know that information, they would need to go through the freedom of information system and pay a fee to try and wrench the receipt out of the government, likely waiting months for the data.I know, this is a weird one, so stay with me.Western Standard readers will want the full story, as we know it so far.Smith has long been an advocate for transparency and government accountability. She stated as much when she was leader of the Wildrose Party and when she was hosting her radio program..So, when I read that detailed receipts would be hidden from taxpayers who are paying the bills, the story left me scratching my head.I emailed the official government media relations team before 9:00 am, asking if the story was true and if the facts were straight.Crickets. Radio silence for hours. We got no answer, no confirmation, or explanation for a very simple question, on a very important topic.Monday, keep in mind, was when Smith was in Mexico, tasked with hammering out deals for Alberta energy and agriculture. This point will become important later in this story.The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) found the documents, and sure enough, the clause that required the posting of itemized receipts for expenses costing more than $100 had been deleted.Every single government of Alberta, no matter the colour of the team jersey, must be accountable to taxpayers.The people paying the bills need to know if government employees are ordering the Taco Tuesday special, or lobster piled on a Wagyu steak.The CTF eventually got an emailed response back from the government after 7:00 pm on Monday night. The government tried to say it made this policy change for “safety” reasons and because the data was taking up too much space on government computers..Those reasons are not credible. It’s easy to remove private information from receipts while still being transparent with taxpayers.Detailed, itemized receipts matter.We can look at the federal government in Ottawa for all the reasons why.Remember the $16 glass of orange juice? Remember former prime minister Justin Trudeau blowing more than $200,000 of taxpayers’ money on “airplane food”? Remember taxpayers paying for foods like beef carpaccio and other stuff folks have trouble pronouncing?Those expense scandal stories would have been forgotten if the line item on the expense report simply said “food” or “hospitality.”Details matter and Alberta taxpayers need to be able to look them up whenever they please.Full transparency is the best disinfectant against entitlement, and the government should be thankful that Alberta has had such grassroots accountability since 2012. It keeps everyone honest and playing by the same rules.Albertans were very interested in the proactive posting of receipts back when former premier Alison Redford was in charge in 2012.The CTF spearheaded the fight to make sure such receipts were proactively posted online.That’s when the policy started..That was around the same time when former MLA Thomas Lukaszuck racked up more than $20,000 in cell phone bills while he was overseas.It was an expense scandal that plagued the government for days.Back then, Premier Smith was leading the Wildrose Party, and she had a front row seat to watch that circus.Which brings us back to the present day and the sudden policy change to hide receipts behind a freedom of information paywall.This move was made on August 1, the Friday before the long weekend.Those are the perfect days for a politician or bureaucrat to try to bury something that stinks.This writer has heard that Smith was away when this quiet but serious change was made to her government’s transparency policy.Some of her senior staff were also away on vacation at the time.This could be a matter of the cat being away, so the mice will play, and Smith has been on the road a lot..Whose idea was this? Who approved it? We don’t know.This writer has been assured that this issue is going to be “discussed” at the cabinet meeting next week before being implemented.It better be.As the drive home host on QR 770, Sarah Crosbie, said on her show when she heard about Smith reportedly being away at the time: “Boy, I would not want to be the teenager screwing around with a house party with this nonsense while that Mama was on her way home, that sounds like trouble.”Smith’s trade trip to Mexico is wrapping up on August 13.Full transparency and accountability are essential. It’s something Albertans should be proud of and that we all need to protect.Smith should tell taxpayers that she’s scrapping this stupid move and restoring full transparency before she unpacks her suitcase.Kris Sims is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
