"I have talked with vice-chair of the Public Accounts Committee Harry Harding and he has informed me that the Conservative members of the committee will not be attending any meeting to deal with the request we have made. We wanted the committee to hold a special meeting to discuss the possible breaches of the province’s Financial Administration Act by the Premier. If the committee members agreed, a formal request would have been made to have the Auditor General investigate.

"There is more to the process used to end this strike than meets the eye and we need a full investigation by an independent official to get to the bottom of what has happened here. A Minister has resigned, a Deputy Minister has been dismissed and there are very few details on exactly what is happening. The general public in Corner Brook and the VON are not aware of the amount of money that has been allocated or committed. I am very disappointed that the Conservative members of the committee have decided to attempt to block a full investigation from happening.

"As members of the Public Accounts Committee we have a very important role in examining the finances of the province. I take that role very seriously and the Conservative members will have to explain why they don’t think an independent investigation into this matter would be useful. If the government members on the Public Accounts Committee really want to find out the amount of funding allocated, the Terms of Reference for the pilot project and the length of the project, they will agree with our request to have a review done of this whole matter. I don’t intend to let this issue die, I will be bring it up at the next regular meeting of the Committee."

The Liberal members of the committee had hoped to make a special request under section 16. (1) of the Auditor General Act which allows for the Public Accounts Committee to request a special report on a matter relating to the financial affairs of the province.