Sackville man launches online forum for MLA expense complaints
Posted Mar 5, 2010 05:35:06 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Sackville man who led the charge against HRM’s bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games has turned his attention to the provincial government and the MLA expense scandal.
Bruce Devenne was a vocal opponent of Halifax’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth games, speaking out on talk shows and in letters to the editor.
Now he says he’s angry at the province’s MLAs in light of the auditor general’s report which revealed some questionable spending – and he says he’s not the only one.
“The people want to see the government treated the same way they’re treated,” he said. “If I was caught in a situation like this with a private company, do you honestly think the company or police would say, ‘Go ahead Bruce, you investigate it and you tell us if you think charges should be laid.'”
Devenne says it appears the MLAs want the whole mess to go away, but he won’t let it happen.
“Basically what the government is doing, is they’re whitewashing this over,” he said. “They put a line in the sand, if you saw Art Donahoe the other day. ‘There, look, now from here forward, but don’t look back.'”
Devenne has set up a website and online petition and is inviting people to visit it and post their thoughts.
“The most prominent word you hear in the comments is ‘crooks,’ ‘thieves,’ ‘criminal charges,'” he said. “They definitely want an independent RCMP investigation into this, with criminal charges being laid.”
He says he plans to print off the petition and present it to Premier Darrell Dexter from the legislature’s public gallery during the upcoming spring session.
