NOT THE FIRST BUT IS IT THE RIGHT APPROACH

Turns out, to no one's surprise, that the Williams administration is not the first to express concerns about the approach or cost of a public inquiry. Apparently the Wells administration expressed concerns to Judge Hughes during the early 1990's.

Justice Minister Jerome Kennedy, who had problems with the limitations he faced questioning government counsel on the Lamer Inquiry, has expressed concerns that Judge Cameron may not be following the rules she set down for her own inquiry. Today Kennedy claimed that he had unearthed correspondence from Premier Wells, Justice Minister Paul Dicks and Judge Hughes regarding discussions about that inquiry. The discussion seem to have involved a confidential meeting between the premier and the judge and an exchange of letters with Dicks. Hughes apparently was not pleased with the interference.

This latest revelation does not change my comments of earlier today. Government established the terms of this inquiry, approved the time-lines and will foot the bill. They have a legitimate right to question all of these matters. I still think that the current government's concerns could have been handled much better. The public pronouncements were unhelpful. Perhaps government just want to be portrayed as fiscally prudent so when the final bill comes in they can say I told you so!