Premier Tony Wakeham is crying foul claiming that former Liberal Premier Andrew Furey is “refusing” to release the Rothschild report on its review of provincial government assets.

The former government issued a $5.4 million contract to Rothschild and Company to analyse government assets in 2021. The report and its recommendations were received by government in the spring of 2022.

Wakeham now doubts the report ever existed.

Furey responded to the premier’s request for access to the report earlier this week, claiming that releasing it would be a violation of cabinet confidence

The email also outlined that the report is (as Wakeham described it) dated and no longer applicable.

“To be quite frank, I’m not sure that there was actually a report,” he told reporters.

“From what I am hearing, there was a series of slide presentations. I’m not sure what that looks like because I have no idea of what was actually so-called, actually given to government over time.”

Liberal Leader John Hogan says if Wakeham does want a review of government finances, he should commission his own report.

“I’m not going to say that cabinet documents should be released. I’m never going to ask this current premier to release cabinet documents,” he told reporters.

NDP Leader Jim Dinn believes the document should be made public, saying it’s the people of the province who own the resources.