What they said

vs. What really happened

Broken Promises on Record

Dexter Misleads Public about Costs of Civil Servant Relocation

  • What they said...

    The NDP were quick to promise openness and transparency while on the campaign trail in 2009.

    In April 2009, Dexter lashed out at then Premier Rodney MacDonald for hiding from questions and attempting to shield his cabinet from media scrutiny.

    He said, “It’s a government not in charge, it’s a government in hiding, they want to do everything without being accountable for it,” added Dexter.

    Heading into the NDP’s first house session as government, Dexter also added, “It is good to have ministers who have to respond to questions, mainly because it forces the government, it forces departments, to carefully consider decisions that they're making. And that is good for government. I have always believed that accountability strengthens government.”

    He placed demands of transparency on previous governments and said he welcomed questions from the public … Dexter’s promises of a transparent and open government soon proved to be false promises.

    What really happened...

    The Dexter government blocked the release of a report on the socio-economic costs of gambling, eliminated the vehicle through which the government received unpartisan, expert advice, and adopted Harper’s social media policy.

    Recently, the premier was caught misleading Nova Scotians about the costs associated with relocating civil servants to parts of rural Nova Scotia.

    On April 30, the Dexter government announced its plans to move civil servants to rural Nova Scotia. Reporters asked the premier and his justice minister Ross Landry how much the move would cost the province and they said they did not know.
    Though Dexter and Landry tried to say they did not know the cost, documents obtained by Metro show that the government knew the cost the day prior to the announcement, April 29.



    According to Metro, the total cost was projected at $2.4 million and that, “Documents from the Department of Justice include two pages breaking down the cost for their department, but the pages are entirely redacted.”

    The news story added, “An e-mail exchange on the topic of cost between Judith Ferguson, the deputy minister of justice, Paul Black, Premier Darrell Dexter’s director of policy, and David Darrow, Dexter’s deputy minister, was also completely redacted.”

    Misleading the public, providing incomplete and inaccurate information about the cost of their decision and completely redacting e-mails are further examples of how the Dexter government has learned from the Harper government in Ottawa.
    This kind of obstructionist governance is not acceptable.

That's what we call... A Broken Promise

© 2012 NS Liberal Party