Nova Scotia auditor general credits government on progress fulfilling recommendations

Nova Scotia auditor general Kim Adair addresses a news conference in Halifax on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michale Tutton

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia auditor general Kim Adair said Tuesday the provincial government has made substantial progress toward acting on recommendations she made from 2020 to 2022.

In the first followup report since her office staved off government measures threatening her independence, Adair awarded the Progressive Conservative government a place on her “honour roll.” She told reporters the Tories had implemented 82 of 103 audit recommendations over the three years, including all recommendations from the 2021 audit.

“This year, I’m happy to report government has completed 80 per cent of the recommendations from those three years, a marked improvement over last year’s score of 60 per cent,” Adair said. Every year the auditor general publishes a report to check back on progress made addressing shortcomings identified in previous audits.

The new report comes after Premier Tim Houston announced he was withdrawing proposed legislation that would have allowed his government to fire the auditor general without cause and veto the public release of her reports.

On Feb. 18, his government introduced legislation that included measures allowing a two-thirds majority of the legislature to fire the auditor general without cause, and ministers to prevent audits from being released if they consider that blocking them is in the “public interest.”

Two days later, Adair told reporters the proposed changes would threaten her office’s ability to independently investigate government spending and could prevent the release of information the party in power doesn’t want the public to see.

Then, on Feb. 24, the premier said in a news release he realized the amendments affecting the auditor general had become “something they weren’t intended to be,” and he no longer supported them.

When asked if Tuesday’s report that praises government progress had anything to do with this sequence of events, Adair said the results of the report “were known in advance of the whole event that unfolded.”

“It was fair to acknowledge the positive outcomes ... there’s mixed commentary in today’s report, but I think it’s fairly articulated.”

Adair also used the report to highlight government’s failure to complete corrective actions included in a 2019 audit of how the province manages bridge projects in the central and western parts of Nova Scotia.

She said two of seven recommendations related to bridge projects have been fulfilled, adding that the Public Works Department has not completed bridge inspections or implemented consistent criteria to prioritize bridge repair and replacement. Adair called the lack of action a “low point” for the government.

“You need a provincewide system that you can rely on, and the public has to have comfort that public works has a handle on it. It’s a public safety issue,” Adair said. “So I’m surprised that five years out they do not have them done.”

As well, the province has failed to create an inventory of contaminated sites in Nova Scotia -- a 2020 audit recommendation -- and it has not completed 12 of 20 recommendations from a 2022 audit on oversight and management of public housing.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2025.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press