BILL NO. 9

1st Session, 57th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
47 Elizabeth II, 1998

Private Member's Bill

Auditor General Act
(amended)

John F. Hamm, M.D.
Pictou Centre

First Reading: June 2, 1998

(Explanatory Note)

Second Reading:

Third Reading:

This Bill requires a public-private partnership agreement for a capital project in excess of five million dollars to be reviewed by the Auditor General for the purpose of determining whether the agreement is in the best financial interests of the Province.

Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:

1 Chapter 28 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Auditor General Act, is amended by adding immediately after Section 12 the following Section:

12A (1) Prior to an agency of government entering into a public-private partnership agreement for a capital project in excess of five million dollars, the proposed agreement shall be submitted to the Auditor General for a cost-benefit analysis.

(2) When the Auditor General has completed the analysis referred to in subsection (1), the Auditor General shall provide a written report in a timely fashion as to whether the public-private partnership is reasonable and in the financial interests of the Province.

(3) The report referred to in subsection (2) shall be tabled in the House of Assembly if the House is sitting and, if the House is not sitting, the report shall be tabled with the Clerk of the House.

(4) The Governor in Council may make regulations defining any word or expression used but not defined in this Section.

(5) The exercise by the Governor in Council of the authority contained in subsection (4) is regulations within the meaning of the Regulations Act.