Maureen MacDonald asks for more scrutiny for top hires

The Nova Scotia NDP is asking the governing Liberals to support a motion that would force the government to justify all top hires at Crown corporations, agencies and boards.

Interim leader Maureen MacDonald introduced the motion on Monday.

"This is a government that has pushed more and more of the decision making into these unelected, unaccountable, not very transparent entities of government. If you're going to do that then the public accountability process needs to be tightened up and improved considerably," she said.

MacDonald says within three months of hiring a president or CEO, the deputy minister of the overseeing department would have to appear before the human resources committee to answer questions about that choice.

"It's a toe in the door I would say to you to start to have better accountability," she said.

"And if this is on the books then when those processes are in place deputy ministers and hiring committees will be very aware that they will have to come to the committee and talk about the selection process and who has been selected and why those decisions were made."