The Williams government publicly defended the chief electoral officer Monday as the controversy over the St. Barbe byelection moved into the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature.

Deputy Premier Kathy Dunderdale said she has full confidence in Paul Reynolds' decision to not investigate Tory spending in that 2001 campaign, after Liberal justice critic Kelvin Parsons called for an investigation in the house of assembly.

"To determine whether any other inappropriate funds were channelled to the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador," he said.

The controversy started after CBC News reported how former cabinet minister Ed Byrne had used illegal money to make secret payments of $3,000 to Wayne Clarke, a worker in the St. Barbe campaign.

Byrne was sentenced April 17 to two years less a day on fraud-related charges.

'We are speaking to the integrity of the man'

According to an agreed statement of facts released in Byrne's trial, Clarke's payment came through Byrnes' constituency allowance, not the PC party. There is no evidence that Clarke knew anything about the arrangement.

Tory Wally Young won the St. Barbe race by 23 votes.

Chief electoral officer Paul Reynolds told CBC there is no reason to hold a formal investigation because there is no evidence that anyone other than Byrne did anything wrong.

The Liberals and the NDP said Reynolds' refusal to investigate was unacceptable, and have been calling for Reynolds to resign ever since.

Dunderdale said that won't happen since the Williams government has "every confidence in his ability to deal with this matter."

And while the opposition has focused on the fact that Reynolds is a former PC party president, Dunderdale insists that isn't an issue.

"I mean we are speaking to the integrity of the man, particularly in this circumstance, and our confidence in his ability to put his partisan politics to one side. And we believe that he's done that," she said.

Dunderdale said the PC party offered to reimburse taxpayers for Byrne's illegal spending, but Byrne has already done that as part of his guilty plea.