Province will now disclose details of all loans over $100K

The provincial government says all loans approved by Finance P.E.I. and Island Investment Development Inc.valued at more than $100,000 will be made public.

The public will now see how tax dollars are spent, Matthew MacKay, minister of economic growth and tourism, told reporters following Thursday's legislature session.

"The threshold used to be $5 million, then the previous government, after us fighting, got them down to $1 million.And one of my first priorities getting in, I wanted to lower it as low as we could."

Once a loan over the $100,000 threshold "is approved at any level it is going to be disclosed," MacKay said.

The new policy is already in place.

When a loan receives approval, the name of the borrower, the name of the lender, the amount, the interest rate, the term, and a general comment about the use of funds will be posted to the Finance P.E.I. website, MacKay said.

Privacy concerns

Some may be concerned about privacy. That is why the threshold was chosen, MacKay said.

"That's kind of why we hit the $100,000 mark, because after we got into that we start getting into the down payment for homes program," he said. "We start getting into maybe a short-term line of credit to offset a piece of business."

MacKay said the average loan is $350,000, adding that the disclosure doesn't work retroactively. The currentgovernment won't be able to go back and disclose loans over the threshold issuedby previous governments.

"We cannot go back due to legal reasons, so any loan from here on out will be disclosed," he said.

MacKay said this was a top prioritybecause he wants to see government work openly and transparently.

Finance P.E.I. will also work with borrowers to allow additional information to be disclosed on a case-by-case basis, he said.

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