Mandryk: Group says government bypassing disclosure

Why governments are so stingy with information after the fact is rather obvious. Consider the legitimate concern that SaskPower simply did not do its due diligence on its smart meter deal with Sensus.

Despite recovering $24 million by convincing the U.S.-based company to take back the faulty devices, this deal will still wind up costing ratepayers millions in installation and removal costs.

Of course, we don't know whether SaskPower did or didn't do its diligence. It keeps putting up roadblocks to getting to the bottom of this, including a $57,000 bill sent to this newspaper - the supposed cost of four Freedom of Information requests about the selection of Sensus, exemptions for installers, malfunctions and communication with Sensus.

But such disclosure shouldn't be just an after-the-fact matter. Even more critical for governments is to be open and accountable to the citizenry before expenditures are made.

And unless it's another Spudco, in which the former NDP government promoted a project as being something it clearly never was (it was an almost-exclusively government enterprise sold to the public as a public-private partnership), then there's no good reason for the public not to have information before a project starts.

This takes us to the puzzling matter of the public-private Regina bypass project and the government's reluctance to provide the public with all the information individuals are requesting on the route chosen for this project.

In fact, concerned citizens have started a Facebook group entitled "Why Tower Road?" - a reference to the north-south road running west of CTV's Regina station - as the location for this bypass's eastern end.

Admittedly, those pushing for more information - who state their goal is make the government take a "sober second look" at the Tower Road location as they push for the bypass to end a mile further east at Gravel Pit Road - are hardly dispassionate observers.

Nester Mryglod is a co-owner in Super Seamless of Canada - a siding company that plans to relocate its operations on land it owns near the city bypass.

But that certainly doesn't negate the validity of questions he and others are raising on the "Why Tower Road?" Facebook page.

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Mandryk: Group says government bypassing disclosure