Ex-minister cites cabinet confidentiality on sand-mine controversy

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This article was published 02/01/2024 (663 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former Manitoba Tory cabinet minister, who is accused of trying to push through approval of a controversial sand mine days after his government lost power, is suggesting colleagues who spoke out against him broke cabinet confidentiality.

“Our cabinet discussions remain confidential,” Jeff Wharton told the Free Press Tuesday.

He wouldn’t confirm or deny that he had twisted the arms of Kevin Klein or Rochelle Squires. Instead, he said any such conversations with the former environment minister and acting environment minister, respectively, were subject to cabinet confidentiality.

Both Klein and Squires said they were pressured to approve the Sio Silica sand mine near Vivian, after the Tories lost the Oct. 3 election. The MLAs — who lost their seats — said last week that Wharton called them on Oct. 12 when he was still economic development minister and asked them to approve the project before the NDP government was sworn in.

Both ministers refused.

Squires, in a Free Press op/ed Dec. 28, said Wharton told her that then-premier Heather Stefanson wanted the project approved but had a conflict of interest. A statement issued on behalf of Stefanson denied she has any conflict involving Sio Silica.

Wharton said Tuesday he had no intention, nor the authority, to direct Klein or Squires to approve the project, that it was left for the incoming NDP government to decide, and that his Progressive Conservative government didn’t break any “caretaker” government rules on the way out of office.

“No licence was issued; no convention was breached,” he said.

Wharton, who was re-elected MLA for Red River North, said any conversation he had with cabinet ministers should be considered confidential.

When asked whether Squires or Klein had violated cabinet confidentiality by talking publicly about him asking them to approve the sand mine in the R.M. of Springfield, Wharton replied: “You’ll have to ask them.”

Squires dismissed Wharton’s claim about cabinet confidentiality outright.

“Cabinet confidentiality is something I take very seriously,” the former minister said Tuesday.

Squires said she doesn’t recall any conversations about the Sio Silica sand mine at the cabinet table. Wharton’s Oct. 12 call asking her to approve the project “was very much outside cabinet — between two colleagues,” she said.

Squires, the former MLA for Riel, said Wharton is the only person she has heard suggest that cabinet confidentiality applied in this case.

“I haven’t heard from any sitting MLA to say anything or challenge me or confer with me,” said Squires. She has, however, received “hundreds of messages” from “former PC members and concerned Manitobans and party members,” she said.

Klein also said Tuesday he didn’t breach cabinet confidentiality by speaking up about Wharton’s call because it wasn’t a matter that was before cabinet or discussed in cabinet meetings.

“I stand by what I said,” the former member for Kirkfield Park said.

As environment minister, Klein didn’t approve the project before the election, saying that more information was needed to address any environmental risks posed by the Sio Silica’s proposal to drill hundreds of silica sand extraction wells in southeastern Manitoba.

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“He made the phone call and it was very clear what he wanted done and I would not do it,” said Klein. “I was not only disappointed but very angry about it, and that was the end of our call.”

University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus Paul Thomas said cabinet confidentiality applies to the process of cabinet decision making — “mainly to memoranda for decision-making by cabinet and the minutes which record internal debates within cabinet.”

Thomas said a 20-year rule applies to the public release of cabinet documents, and that cabinet solidarity requires that once a decision is made, all ministers are expected to defend it publicly.

“There are several situations in which former ministers may legitimately reveal the substance of cabinet deliberations: first, when they resign; second, when a government is defeated; and, third, when ministers publish their political memoirs. Former ministers are not bound by the 20-year period set out in statutes,” Thomas said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.