At last count, eight provinces have been through elections this year. British Columbia now has fixed election dates - next ballot in 2005 - and Albertans are likely to go to the polls next spring. In three provinces - Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland - voters turfed out incumbent majority governments and replaced them with opposite partisan stripe majority governments.

In each province where this change occurred, the first few weeks of the Charest (Quebec), McGuinty (Ontario) and Williams (Newfoundland) administrations strictly followed "page one" of the assuming power playbook (in both official languages).

To paraphrase the incoming premiers, they all crowed: "We have a mandate from the people. We will end the politics of division. We will heal old wounds. A new era of consultation and cooperation has begun. There is much work to do … blah, blah, blah,"

While the colours of the parties turfed and assuming power differed, the fudge-it budget dance remained the same. As soon as the new administration had a gander at the books, well guffaw, guffaw, surprise, surprise, shock and horror ensued. The proverbial cupboards were found wanting if not bare. Surpluses became deficits and deficits became bigger deficits.

This decades-old political shell game is tiresome and infuriating. And here's a newsflash for Premiers Charest, McGuinty, Williams and aspiring politicos across-the-country. This insulting and arrogant conspiracy in which you collectively engage is done like dinner. Don't think taxpayers haven't caught on to this game.

It's straight from "page two' of the assuming power playbook. Here's the game plan: The outgoing administration delivers the office keys to the new folks with a wink, a special handshake and then leaves the oops-we-have-a-(fill in the blank) deficit-analysis on the top left hand side of the desk. The new crew can't miss it … it's the only document that wasn't shredded or boxed up for the archives. It is fraudulent, Enron-esque abuse of taxpayer trust.

As a result of the accounting scandals on Wall Street, corporate North America has been rightly forced to drastically reform its financial disclosure and governance, we should demand no less from our politicians. After the fudge-it budget scandal of the mid-1990s in B.C. - where politicians ordered bureaucrats to doctor (read: misreport) numbers - an independent panel chaired by respected accountant Doug Enns proposed major reforms to clean up B.C.'s budgeting practices.

While some provinces are better than others in the transparent reporting of their finances, improvements (in law) can be made by governments - including our cities - across the country.

Verifiable budgets: A budget is more than a simple partisan statement of political intent. At its core, a budget must accurately present the state of the jurisdiction's finances. An independent legislative officer, like an Auditor General, should sign off on the veracity of the document.

Budget timing: It should be law that governments must introduce and pass an annual budget before the start of the first fiscal period which the budget covers. This timing must also include an appropriate window for independent verification.

Locally, city council is taking two steps back as opposed to moving forward with respect to budget timing. The present schedule has the 2004 city budget being adopted the week of March 8th … which will likely get pushed back to later in the month if past history is any sort of predictor of the future. So once again, our city budget will be approved after 25% of the money has been spent.

While the 2003 election cycle can be partly blamed for the 2004 budget delay, earlier release of the universal program review analyses could have ensured budget approval - with appropriate debate - as early as January.

Special warrants: Special warrants allow governments to spend monies not accounted for in a budget due to extraordinary circumstances such as a war, natural disaster, civil service strike or public health emergency. However, governments routinely use these warrants out of political convenience to sidestep parliament, the legislature or city council. With proper budget timing periods passed into law, consequent legislative changes should be made to curtail the use of special warrants for their intended purpose only.

Pre-budget data: Most jurisdictions conduct pre-budget consultations to obtain input from stakeholders and the general public. Governments should be compelled to publish verifiable base data forecasts of growth and revenues in advance of these consultations to improve the consistency and quality of options proffered by stakeholders. Case in point, Finance Minister John Manley presented his Economic Update on November 3rd which was of little value to most groups since they had already submitted their pre-budget proposals by this time.

Transparency of forecasts: Finance officials and municipal budget chiefs base their revenue and expenditure estimates on assumptions and advice from staff and outside economists. Full public disclosure of these documents before budget tabling - including variance ranges and cautionary notes - is essential.

Truth in budgeting legislation is long overdue. If changes are not enacted, then the politicians that deliberately mislead taxpayers about the state of public finances deserve the same fate as the fraudsters behind the Wall Street accounting scandals like Enron, steep fines and jail time.