Loan writeoff details from past 13 years wanted by Opposition

P.E.I.'s Progressive Conservative Opposition wants government to release detailed information on millions of dollars worth of loan writeoffs and cancellations going back to 2002.

This week the P.E.I. government announced all future writeoffs will require the approval of cabinet, in response to concerns raised in the spring by the auditor general.

Government also said legislation will be passed in the fall to allow the names of businesses involved in writeoffs along with the loan amounts to be disclosed to the public.

But those measures will only apply to loans going forward. Opposition economic development critic Matthew MacKay said government should release the information retroactively.

$6.5M written off since 2012

"They made a great start, saying going forward, they're going to do it different," MacKay said.

"But we've got to go in the past and fix past mistakes before we can go ahead, in my opinion. I think the public and the taxpayers of Prince Edward Island deserve to know where their money went."

In her 2015 report, P.E.I.'s Auditor General Jane MacAdam raised concerns over the fact provincial Crown corporations were no longer obtaining cabinet approval to write off and cancel loans. She noted a decline in the public reporting of the companies and dollar amounts involved in writeoffs dating back to 2002.

Requiring Crown corporations to receive cabinet approval for writeoffs and cancellations "results in a publicly available record which promotes transparency and accountability," MacAdam said in her report.

She found that since Finance PEI was created as the province's primary lending agency in April 2012, it has written off more than $6.5 million in loans.

Can't disclose retroactively: premier

During question period Premier Wade MacLauchlan said government is unable to go back and disclose the companies behind previous loan writeoffs.

"Legally we cannot, at this stage, go back and disclose the identity under the legislation, on a retroactive basis," he said.

Minister of Economic Development and Tourism Heath MacDonald told the opposition if they wanted more information on past writeoffs, "we do have a FOIPP [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy] act, if there's anything that they require to see there is a streamline there for them to access that."

While loan writeoffs from Crown corporations now require cabinet approval, a government spokesperson clarified today that the orders-in-council signifying a writeoff occurred will not include the names of companies or the amounts written off until legislative amendments are passed to allow that, likely in the fall sitting of the legislature.