NDP ‘taking the time to get this right’ amid calls for ethics probe of mine project

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This article was published 11/01/2024 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP government isn’t rushing a decision on whether to ask Manitoba’s ethics commissioner to investigate allegations the Tories tried to push through a controversial proposed silica sand mine.

Premier Wab Kinew told reporters the NDP is deciding how to move forward, after being asked if he will request a review into whether provincial ethics rules were breached.

“Our team, mindful of the fact there is a new conflict-of-interest law which took effect on the election, and being very aware of all the public commentary that has happened recently, is taking the time to get this right,” Kinew said Wednesday.

“We have to proceed judiciously and carefully on this subject and our future course of action, because this is an area where our democracy is at stake.”

Kinew wouldn’t say if his government has obtained documents that could support a complaint to ethics commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor.

“I think that we’ll have more to say on this in the near future,” he said.

Last month, Kinew accused the former Progressive Conservative government of trying to approve Calgary-based Sio Silica’s proposed project during a transition period after the Tories lost the Oct. 3 election.

Two former Tory cabinet ministers — Kevin Klein and Rochelle Squires — later claimed PC MLA Jeff Wharton, then-economic development minister, asked them to approve the project during separate phone calls Oct. 12, six days before the NDP cabinet was sworn in.

Klein and Squires, who lost their seats in the election, have said they refused.

They said such an approval would breach the transition period’s caretaker convention, when an outgoing party is to refrain from making major or controversial decisions that cannot be immediately undone by an incoming government.

In a Free Press op-ed, Squires said Wharton described the project as being of significant importance to outgoing premier Heather Stefanson, but she couldn’t direct an approval herself due to a conflict of interest.

Stefanson (PC leader and MLA for Tuxedo) has not taken questions on the controversy. A spokesperson has said Stefanson had no conflict of interest with Sio Silica.

Speaking to the Free Press earlier this month, Wharton would neither confirm nor deny he pressured Klein or Squires to approve the project.

The Red River North MLA said any such conversations were subject to cabinet confidentiality and he had no intent, nor the authority, to direct an approval.

A PC spokesperson said Stefanson and Wharton were not available for interviews Thursday.

The NDP government is reviewing Sio Silica’s proposal and has not yet announced a decision.

Sio Silica wants to extract silica sand, which is used to create solar panels and computer chips, and process it at a new facility outside Vivian, about 35 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

“Sio appreciates the new government’s commitment to evidence-based decision making and we are committed to continuing to work with them to ensure we answer all of their questions during their extensive review,” company president and chief executive officer Feisal Somji said in a statement.

Meantime, Some council members in the Rural Municipality of Springfield, where mining activity is proposed to take place, want Schnoor to investigate.

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“We’re definitely hopeful that some member of the legislature will move this forward,” said Springfield councillor Mark Miller, who is opposed to the project and has been reaching out to MLAs to find out if they are willing to submit a complaint.

Under Manitoba’s conflict-of-interest legislation, MLAs are not allowed to make or influence decisions that provide an opportunity to further their private interests or those of their family or improperly further another person’s private interests.

Only an MLA can ask Schnoor to conduct a review, if they have “reasonable grounds” to believe a breach occurred.

— with files from Carol Sanders

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris 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.