The government should consider making British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. subject to freedom of information requests. That’s what the province’s comptroller general recommended last week, in a report that found a need for greater transparency and accountability at the government-owned company.

But, if this recommendation sounds familiar to you, it should. Because greater greater transparency and accountability at BC Ferries is something the New Democrats, the ferry workers and the shipyard workers have demanded since the Crown corporation went private.

But the government has always brushed aside those demands. For example, three years ago, the premier told the legislature BC Ferries is “more open and accountable now than it has ever been before.” And, when he was transportation minister, Kevin Falcon claimed BC Ferries’ current level of oversight gives “far better protection to taxpayers” than there was when it was controlled by government.

Which explains why the Liberals must have been shocked to learn the company’s president and chief executive officer David Hahn has a compensation package worth more than one million dollars. So now that the province’s comptroller general has proven Gordon Campbell wrong, I want to know if government is going to do the right thing and act on the auditor general’s recommendation.

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