Mediaboss Marketing

Liberals spent a big chunk of Wednesday afternoon in the House of Assembly accusing Justice Minister Judy Manning of blocking access to documents which would inform the current debate on House of Assembly reform.

Justice Minister Judy Manning Photo by James McLeod/The Telegram

Manning is an unelected minister, and so she was forced to sit silently in the public galleries as first Liberal Leader Dwight Ball and then Liberal House leader Andrew Parsons pressed the issue.

RELATED STORIES

Debate begins on seat-cutting in House

Davis to slash 10 seats from the legislature

With MHAs debating a proposal to cut the number of MHAs from 48 to 38, the Liberals say they want to see all of the documents surrounding the 1993 electoral boundaries commission which laid the groundwork for shrinking House of Assembly from 52 to 48 two decades ago.

We asked the Justice Library for a copy of the presentations and first they said they had to be redacted. Then they said we would have all presentations within one hour un-redacted. Then suddenly they said there could be redactions and the process could take days, Ball said in the House. I ask the premier: these presentations are 21 years old and they were supposed to be public. Why do you need to review them? Why would you need to review a public presentation before you release them?

Government House Leader Darin King didnt have an answer on why the documents were being withheld. He said hed look into it and report back.

I cannot answer as to why officials would feel the need to do as he suggested they have done. I really cannot respond to it, King said. What I will do is I will commit in the next question period, I will certainly be prepared to provide you with further information to clarify any misunderstanding that might have occurred and ensure that the documents are made available in as quick an order as possible.

Read the original here:
Liberals say Manning withholding documents needed for House of Assembly debate