Ethics commissioner writing report after ‘complex’ probe into alleged Tory conflict of interest

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This article was published 08/01/2025 (293 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AN investigation into allegations the former Manitoba Tory government tried to get a controversial mining project approved after losing the 2023 election is still months from being made public — almost a year after it was launched.

“This has been a complex investigation,” Manitoba ethics commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor told the Free Press Monday, nearly a year after the conflict of interest complaint was made by the governing NDP over a sand mine proposed by Sio Silica southeast of Winnipeg.

Hundreds of pages of documents, emails and text messages have been reviewed and roughly 20 people have been interviewed — in some cases twice, Schnoor said.

“As you can imagine, scheduling the interviews and obtaining the documents have taken a lot of time,” he said.

On Jan. 12, 2024, the NDP accused then-Tory leader Heather Stefanson and former cabinet minister Jeff Wharton of breaking conflict of interest laws in an attempt to approve the proposed sand mine after the party had lost the Oct. 3, 2023 election and during the brief caretaker period before the NDP government was sworn in.

While the proposed mine was never approved, questions remain about whether there was an attempt to violate ethics rules and how new legislation that took effect after that election will be upheld, observers say.

“This was an early case under the new law which is broader in scope, and grants the commissioner more authority than the previous law,” Paul Thomas, University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus, said Tuesday.

He said Schnoor “will want to get it right and be sure that it stands up to scrutiny.”

NDP caucus chair Mike Moyes (Riel) filed the complaints, asking Schnoor to investigate Stefanson and Wharton for corruption, for putting their own interests ahead of Manitobans’ and for violating the Conflict of Interest Act.

The complaints were based on public statements made by former environment minister Kevin Klein and acting environment minister Rochelle Squires (who both lost their seats to the NDP on Oct. 3). They claimed they received separate calls from Wharton on Oct. 12, asking them to approve an environmental licence for the sand-extraction project.

Squires also said the mining project was described by Wharton as being of significant importance to Stefanson, but because of a conflict, the former premier couldn’t direct an approval herself.

Wharton, who was re-elected in Red River North, has denied asking them to issue a licence to Sio Silica or telling anyone that Stefanson had a conflict of interest with the company.

Stefanson, through the PC caucus, has denied any conflict. In April, she resigned her Tuxedo seat. After she left office, the NDP caucus asked Schnoor to continue his ethics investigation.

“I am now preparing my report,” the commissioner said this week.

New conflict of interest legislation — passed by the PCs in 2021 but not in force until Oct. 4, 2023 — gives the ethics commissioner extensive power to receive and investigate complaints from MLAs. Under the former legislation, the only way to hold an MLA to account was for a citizen to go to court.

Now, the ethics commissioner can recommend that the legislative assembly impose sanctions if an MLA has contravened the law, including: a reprimand; a fine of up to $50,000; suspension of a member’s right to sit and vote in the assembly for a specified period or until a condition imposed by the commissioner is fulfilled; and declaring the member’s seat vacant.

The new rules broaden the definition of a conflict, so “a member is in a conflict of interest when the member exercises an official power, duty or function that provides an opportunity to further their private interests or those of their family or to improperly further another person’s private interests.”

Sio Silica CEO Feisal Somji has said the company did not ask the previous government to approve the project during the caretaker period between the election and swearing-in.

He previously said that the company has been co-operative with the ethics probe.

Schnoor said once his report is completed, it will be submitted to Speaker Tom Lindsey, distributed to all MLAs and made public. He said he hopes to have it done in time for the spring sitting of the legislature, March 5 to June 2.

“If there’s something there, it’s very important that that become public knowledge,” University of Manitoba law professor Brandon Trask said Tuesday.

“Hearing that Mr. Schnoor has talked to roughly 20 people, I certainly have confidence he is doing a thorough investigation.”

Thomas said it may be difficult to get to any firm conclusions in the case.

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There were contradictory statements from former PC cabinet ministers about what happened, and it did not involve a straightforward complaint of an alleged conflict of interest, Thomas said.

“Instead, it involved an allegation of improper conduct favouring a private party — this is a less well-developed area of public law.”

A violation of the unwritten constitutional caretaker convention — if the alleged behaviour occurred — clearly breaks the rule that an outgoing government should not make major, consequential, hard-to-reverse decisions that constrain an incoming government, Thomas said.

“The existence of the convention has been recognized by the courts, but they have left it to legislatures and voters to impose potential penalties for violations,” he 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.