With the swirl of controversy circling former Premier Alison Redford still in full swing, last week’s resignation of her post as MLA for Calgary-Elbow didn’t come as a surprise to many.

In fact, she should have resigned from her position as MLA months ago in conjunction with her resignation as premier last April.

But instead she held on and in that time the controversy continued to grow and came to an all time high last week when the auditor general’s report was released detailing Redford’s spending and decision-making as she served as the province’s premier.

It was no surprise that there were even more controversial spending acts that were in the recently released report.

However, before the report was released and in a statement after Redford’s resignation, Premier Dave Hancock had this to say, “While this is a difficult decision for me, I am extremely disappointed to learn of Ms. Redford’s actions while premier. I had great respect for her and great hope for the promise she showed early in her tenure.”

He also stated that he will direct the minister of justice and solicitor general to refer this matter to the RCMP for their review and any investigations that they consider appropriate.

As mentioned, Auditor General Merwan Saher released his report late last week on the findings of a special duty audit requested by Redford this past March.

In his report he concluded that Redford and her office used public resources inappropriately.

He said that they consistently failed to demonstrate in the documents they examined that their travel expenses were necessary and a reasonable and appropriate use of public resources – in other words economical and in support of a government business objective.

Saher also stated in his report that Redford used public assets (aircraft) for personal and partisan purposes. And that she was involved in a plan to convert public space in a public building into personal living space.

The report outlined that overall the expense practices and use of public assets by Redford and her office have fallen short of publicly stated goals.

So what comes next?

Of course, none of these findings should come as a surprise to Albertans. We have been hearing of these misuses of power for many months now. Hopefully, the proper actions can be taken, Albertans can learn from this and everyone can move forward for the betterment of the province as a whole.

Only time will tell we suppose.