Sometimes well-meaning and necessary actions to protect the public interest run into a brick wall called political partisanship.Unfortunately for taxpayers, such will likely prove to be the case with Alberta opposition parties' calls for a public inquiry into the spending scandal involving former premier Alison Redford and her staff.Although the scandal involves the misuse of vast sums of public money and the inappropriate use of government resources, a public inquiry seems very unlikely.And that is because both the current premier and his government colleagues and the soon-to-be new Tory leader know full well that an inquiry could end up being a lose-lose situation for them all.On Aug. 6 auditor general Merwan Saher released his report on the findings of a special duty audit.“Premier Redford and her office used public resources inappropriately. They consistently failed to demonstration in the documents we examined that their travel expenses were necessary and a reasonable and appropriate use of public resources,” Saher said in his report.Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Kerry Towle says a public inquiry is needed to discover how deep the inappropriate conduct went and if it involved other government ministers.“It is clear that without a broad public inquiry into whether government spending rules are being followed, we will not get to the bottom of this mess,” said Towle.“Albertans are rightfully wondering just how deep these government spending abuses go. If there was this much rot at the very top, signifying to everyone else that this is just how things are done, Albertans need to know just how widespread this is.”The NDP has also called for an inquiry to look into who did what, who knew what, and who did nothing to stop the misdeeds.“Albertans deserve the full story about the PC caucus's misuse of public resources and that can only happen through a public inquiry,” said NDP MLA Deron Bilous. “We haven't got straight answers from anyone. The NDP wants to see those involved compelled to answer questions about the abuse of public assets, under oath.”Even if a public inquiry was held and PC government ministers were cleared of any wrongdoing, the further public airing of the former premier's misdeeds would certainly reflect badly on the government and damage the party's standing with the public at large.And that is why no one should be the least bit surprised to hear current premier Dave Hancock and the future PC leader – most likely Jim Prentice – saying time and again that an inquiry is not needed. Even though it is.
