Liquor & Lotteries chairwoman defends executive who commutes to Calgary

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This article was published 09/01/2018 (2800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The chairwoman of the Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries board is defending the Crown corporation’s decision to employ a senior executive who does not live full-time in the province.

Polly Craik says Deanne Carson, hired in April as vice-president of marketing and communications, was the best possible person for the job.

“We went through a very thorough process,” Craik said Tuesday. “Deanne was absolutely the right selection for the position, and management did the hiring certainly with the support of the board.”

Carson, a former vice-president of marketing with the Calgary Stampede, spends her work week in Winnipeg and goes home on weekends to Alberta to be with her family. Liquor & Lotteries — which regulates gambling and the distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages in Manitoba — says she pays for her travel back and forth to Calgary.

Craik said she doesn’t see a problem with an executive engaging in such a commute.

“That’s just the way of the world these days,” she said. “I’ve got a business and we have five people on Zoom (video) conference calls every week from all over the place. And it’s very productive. It’s just the way that business works today.”

Craik also suggested Carson has Manitoba ties neither she nor the corporation have disclosed.

“I knew that when she was hired that she was already spending summers coming to Winnipeg and spending time out at the lake. So, it’s not as cut and dry as it seems to look in the article,” she said referring to a Free Press report Tuesday.

Asked Tuesday whether Crown corporation executives should live in the province full-time, Premier Brian Pallister chose his words carefully.

“I think the key factor here is that we need to have the best possible people in key roles,” he said, while attending an announcement on the expansion of high-speed internet service in northern Manitoba.

“I think we in Manitoba, quite rightly, believe that we have the best place to live and work and raise a family in the country of Canada, so we’re always puzzled when people choose to live in other places, whether it’s Calgary or elsewhere,” Pallister said.

“That being said, we want the best people possible in key roles within our services. We want that to be the key priority. So, it’s balancing, I suppose, a number of factors. I expect that the board of Liquor & Lotteries will be taking a look at this issue that’s been raised. And I wait to see what their response would be.”

A human resources expert who helps corporations attract executive talent told the Free Press earlier this week there are personal and professional pitfalls to long-distance commutes, adding they are rarely successful over the long term.

Manitobans appear divided on whether a person who earns a full-time public-sector paycheque should live in the province full-time — or whether the over-riding concern be to find the best possible person for the job.

Several readers, commenting on an earlier Free Press story, expressed strong views on the subject in emails and online comments.

“There is nothing wrong with commuting. It is common nowadays and just part of the ‘new normal’ in today’s smaller world. If she is doing a good job, then leave her alone,” one reader wrote.

“Why is commuting so bad?” asked another. “Politicians do it all the time… I, for one, would not like to do that but if she is OK, then who cares? People need to get into the 21st century here. If she shows up for work and does her job, does it really matter where she goes when she leaves for the day?”

One reader said they agreed someone working for a Crown corporation needs “to be invested in the community” and “should live here.”

“A key indicator on how invested one is (to me anyway) would be her driver’s licence. Is it Manitoba or is it not?” the reader said.

Said another reader: “If you don’t live full time in the city where you work full time, (your) head is never here full time. Part of you is always wishing he/she were back home with the family. So no, this situation is not in the best interest of MBLL and the province of Manitoba.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca