The AFRC was created as a body independent
from politicians and government bureaucrats, to
ensure its perceived credibility. Rituals of independence
were meticulously carried out in trying to
confer legitimacy to the work of the Commission.
The only interim reports to politicians informed
them that: ‘‘We are on time; we are on target; we
are on budget.’’ (Commission interview #1, March
2003) Further, Commission members decided not
to quote extensively documents issued either by
the Office or by Treasury; we were told that the
Commission felt that such quotation would have
‘‘undermined’’ its independence and the persuasiveness
of its claims.
In spite of the independence aura that surrounded
the Commission’s internal processes,
Commission members were not free from the influence
of ideas sustained in networks in which they
were involved in their daily life. Given that five
(out of the nine) members of the Commission were
senior members of Big Six firms and that two others
were Chartered Accountants employed as corporate
executives, Commission members were aware
of, and receptive to, the views of the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Alberta (ICAA), which
was at the time vigorously recommending the government
to focus on performance measurement as
a way to overcome the Province’s deficit (ICAA,
1992). Also, Commission members who were
corporate executives relied significantly on their
business experience in making sense of the Commission’s
mandate. As mentioned by one of them: