Bill No. 51 - Halifax Convention Centre Act. - Second reading

MS. CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, I also look forward to hopefully hearing from some members of the public on this at Law Amendments. This is substantially publicly-owned and so I think they certainly have a say. To that end, while some of these changes certainly are administrative and routine, as the minister said, there are others that cause some red flags. I have to say that whenever you hear the word "routine" connected with some piece of legislation, it's a little bit of an indication that we're not to look a little bit closer.

In my conversations with people around the Halifax Regional Municipality, it seems as though they are satisfied with the substance of this bill, which I think is important because they are also co-owners and have liability for the Convention Centre. But I am, like my colleague, concerned about the reduction in public oversight. It's a public project. It was built with public funds and the public has a right to a detailed understanding of the decisions made by Events East.

I understand that some of these rules were set in place before Events East began operating. Some of this may be unnecessary paperwork, but in so many areas, this government repeatedly downplays the importance of public accountability and transparency. The lack of transparency we're hearing so much about is also becoming a concern not just for some members of this House, but also for the public around Events East.

It may be that Events East doesn't need to report on its performance in comparison to other convention centres in the province, but I don't know why we would lower the standards by which we judge our Convention Centre's success in order to come into line with what other people are doing. I think we should always be looking to create best practices, particularly when it comes to government oversight.

We'll be following this closely. As I said, we are all for streamlining the process and reducing unnecessary paperwork, but we are always more concerned with not sacrificing transparency and accountability.

With those few comments, I'll take my seat.