If Mayor Derek Corrigan has an "I told you so" dance, he's breaking it out this week.
More than three years ago, Corrigan spoke out against B.C.'s plan to create a municipal auditor general position, saying it would be a waste of money.
"I always hope against hope that what I've said in the past wasn't true, but it just comes to fruition too often," he told the NOW. "These things are pretty predictable when you think about it. As I've often said, when you make a decision in haste, you get to repent at leisure."
The auditor general for local government, Basia Ruta, was fired last week after refusing a government audit of her own office, saying it should be done by B.C.'s auditor general instead. She is seeking a judicial review of the firing.
Ruta took the position in January of 2013, promising 18 audits of municipalities that year.
Thus far, the office, which has cost $5.2 million since it was established, has completed three audits.
"I think setting up an auditor general's office is very complicated and getting the level of expertise you need to be able to do that job is very, very difficult," Corrigan said of the position. "Having highly trained municipal specialists who can assess municipalities is not an easy job description to fill.
"It's not exactly an attractive job to be going off to do audits on municipalities from Spuzzum to Trail, to be put in the position where almost invariably you're an interloper, coming in to try to understand a municipal system that probably is unique from others," he added.
The problems faced by the office were systemic and not simply due to one individual's shortcomings, Corrigan said.
"From what I hear anecdotally, they were spending all their time hiring consultants from as far away as Nova Scotia to come in and do work for them, because they just didn't have the resources available and couldn't hire the staff that would be necessary," he said. "Trying to place the blame on one individual, which is what they appear to be doing, to blame the municipal auditor general for everything, I think it pretty foolish."
The situation is being handled poorly, he added.
"It's being handled in a ham-handed way as one might expect from (Community Development Minister) Coralee Oakes," he said. "She's not the strongest cabinet minister to begin with, and now she's been put in a position where she has to make tough decisions, and she's not doing it well."
Corrigan was against the office from the beginning, but not because of the way it was established - he said he felt the position was not necessary at all.
But he said it wasn't because the municipalities were afraid to be audited.
"None of the municipalities are hesitant about being audited at any time," he said. "We all have open books, I mean, much more so than the provincial and federal governments.
"It's not something I want to give the press the impression we were afraid of, it's just that we thought it was unnecessary," Corrigan added.
He also questioned why municipalities were the focus.
"TransLink is not subject to audit by either the provincial or municipal auditor general," he said. "And that was one of the major complaints we brought forward. Why would you not include them in this net you're casting? But they didn't."
Corrigan still thinks municipal audits should be done through the existing B.C. Auditor General's office, he said. That's the provincial NDP's position, as well.
Overall, he said he wants the province to come up with a solution that works with the municipalities.
"For all of us, it's to our advantage to find a way to work with the provincial government," he said. "If the province wants to play nice, I want to play nice."
