Legislature committees are usually focused on opposition members and their questions — something that rings especially true for the public accounts committee where senior bureaucrats are often called to account.
There's not a deputy minister or senior bureaucrat in Nova Scotia's government who hasn't felt the dread of having to face — or fend off — questions from committee members bent on scoring a few political points.
But comments made last week by Premier Stephen McNeil suggest there might be a different dynamic at play when Auditor General Michael Pickup appears before the committee this morning at 9 a.m.
The AG clearly touched a nerve by criticizing the McNeil government's communications skills in his latest report, prompting the premier to question what Pickup and his office should be examining.
Pickup's auditors had assessed the government's efforts to resolve the province's ongoing shortage of family doctors, concluding last week that "the department and the health authority are doing a poor job of communicating publicly about planned changes to the delivery of primary care and what is being done to address family doctor vacancies."
A day later, speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, McNeil argued public policy "is a right of those who sit in the House" and suggested that the AG's office should not concern itself with anything beyond money matters.
He repeated the same message over and over: "I look forward to seeing the auditor general before public accounts next week."
Although the premier won't personally show up to challenge Pickup, Liberal committee members will have been briefed and provided with questions to put to the AG on the government's behalf.
It's not unusual for researchers to prepare questions for committee members, but the backbench Liberals who sit on public accounts usually throw softball questions rather than high, hard fastballs.
