In his column, “Will truth die on Deficit Hill?” Tom Fletcher states integrity of public financial information is the next vital step in democratic reform. This is a good first step but along with this we also need to protect the integrity of the individual.
In the article concerning the View Royal councillor it states Ron Mattson was fired for allegedly passing confidential information to a University of Victoria researcher.
The thing to note here is that what is alleged is not proven fact and is based on hearsay information from an anonymous person. The ministry says Mr. Mattson was fired for passing on confidential data.
Mr. Mattson states all he did was to submit an application to have the researcher added as an approved user of a database. If Mr. Mattson did as he said he did then this document should exist along with the name of the person who did or did not approve the addition of the researcher to the user list.
These are simple facts to verify except government will say this is confidential information and not allow us to see them.
We see from Mr. Fletcher’s column that having put millions into TV adds that insist the 2013 budget will struggle into the black, we find a comment made by the premier saying “the current year deficit forecast jumped above $1 billion, largely due to a glut of natural gas.”
Note how they say one thing to make it appear, as though and when the facts come out, they say another. They then defect attention from themselves by laying blame on something else.
If we look into other statements made by governments and heads of Crown corporations we find this to be a common practice. It is this that is destroying democracy.
Jim Bates
Saanich
