Departing ethics commissioner takes pride, but no pleasure in historic consequences of Stefanson probe

Jeff Schnoor wants to make it perfectly clear that his decision to leave Manitoba did not come easily.

However, just six months after he made political history by recommending a former premier be fined for breaching ethics laws, Schnoor is leaving his position as Manitoba’s ethics commissioner to take on a similar role with the Province of British Columbia.

“I’m not going from, I’m going to something,” Schnoor said in an interview. “I love my work in Manitoba. It’s been really interesting and challenging and meaningful, and I would happily have continued doing it. But this opportunity came along and… I’ve been going out to Victoria in the winter for a number of years now. After quite a lot of thought, I decided it was right for me. It was a tough, tough decision, it really was.”

A former deputy attorney general, Schnoor has served as the ethics commissioner — previously known as the conflict of interest commissioner — for nearly a decade, during which he helped to oversee a modernization of ethics laws and served multiple roles, including the registrar of lobbyists and information and privacy adjudicator.

However, it was Schnoor’s investigation into the efforts of former Progressive Conservative premier Heather Stefanson, two cabinet ministers in her government and a Tory MLA to force civil servants to issue an environmental licence for the Sio Silica mining project that will serve as his legacy to Manitoba.

The Sio Silica case was complex and more than a bit ironic in that it was Stefanson’s government that proclaimed the new ethics legislation that led to her and the others being found guilty of ethical transgressions.

In his 100-page final report, which was delivered last May, Schnoor found that Stefanson, along with deputy premier and finance minister Cliff Cullen and economic development minister Jeff Wharton, had applied pressure to senior bureaucrats to approve an environmental licence for the Sio Silica sand mining project in the southeastern part of the province after the Tories had lost the October 2023 election, but before the NDP government took power.

Derek Johnson, the MLA for Interlake-Gimli, was found not to have breached the act.

Other than the specifics of the Sio Silica file, which involves a proposal to use an unproven technology to mine high-quality silica sand, the investigation focused on the doctrine of what’s known as the “caretaker convention.”

This parliamentary tradition dictates governing parties that lose elections are not allowed to enact any consequential measures or decisions while a new government is preparing to take over.

After months of investigation, Schnoor found that Stefanson, Cullen and Wharton took steps to get an environmental licence for Sio Silica against the advice of senior civil servants. Ultimately, no licence was ever issued but only because senior bureaucrats effectively refused.

Schnoor said the premier’s efforts to approve the licence “lacked ethical and constitutional legitimacy.

“I do feel some pride. I think good work was done by me and the team that I put together.”

“The caretaker convention stands at the very core of our democracy,” the report said. “A government that loses an election has lost the confidence of the people and has lost the legitimacy to do anything beyond maintaining the status quo until the new government can take office.”

Schnoor recommended Stefanson be assessed an $18,000 fine for her role. The recommended fines for Cullen and Wharton were $12,000 and $10,000, respectively.

The legislature, including all members of the Progressive Conservative caucus, voted early last month to approve the fines; the three Tories made the payments before the end of October.

Schnoor said he has mixed feelings about being so closely associated with this dark incident in Manitoba political history. “I honestly take no pleasure in it,” Schnoor said of his conclusions and the recommendations the three politicians be fined, a first in Canada.

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“I do feel some pride. I think good work was done by me and the team that I put together. So I, you know, and at the end of the day, the role of the ethics commissioner is to assist in promoting public confidence in our democratic system and institutions. And I did my job, and I hope that it served the purpose of strengthening some confidence in our institutions. But, you know, I take no joy in in the conclusions that I have to make.”

Schnoor, who will remain Manitoba’s ethics commissioner through to the end of the year, said he believes there is still an opportunity to further strengthen the current legislation, to make it more precise and to ensure greater accountability.

Schnoor would not discuss any interactions he may have had with Premier Wab Kinew or any other member of the legislature about what additional steps could be taken to strengthen ethics law.

“That’s a discussion I’m happy to have if a member of the government or the opposition wants to talk to me about my thoughts on specific areas,” he said.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com

Dan Lett
Columnist

Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986.  Read more about Dan.

Dan’s columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press’ editing team reviews Dan’s columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.