22 JANUARY 2015

(FREDERICTON, NB) The province's Auditor General, Kim MacPherson, is presenting the first part of her annual review of the province's finances and programs to a joint meeting of Public Accounts and Crown Corporations committees today.

Green Party Leader and Fredericton South MLA, David Coon, has been appointed to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Standing Committee on Crown Corporations, which are responsible for ensuring the Auditor General's recommendations are implemented.

"As a member of these two committees, I not only have the opportunity to help ensure public money is being spent responsibly, but intend to follow up on the Auditor General's current and past recommendations made to government departments and Crown Corporations over the years, to make sure they are actually implemented," Mr. Coon says.

The Green Party Leader is particularly concerned that the Department of Social Development has yet to develop a long-term strategy to provide and maintain social housing, despite a recommendation to do so by the Auditor General in 2011.

"There are now 5,500 New Brunswickers on a waiting list who are in urgent need of housing. There is no plan and federal funding is dwindling as contracts under the social housing agreement with the federal government end. We are facing a housing crisis for those in need," Mr. Coon adds.

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