Kinew discloses trips to ethics commissioner months later Tories call for probe after premier travelled to Grey Cups on planes chartered by Bombers By: Carol Sanders Posted: 7:08 PM CDT Monday, Mar. 24, 2025

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Premier Wab Kinew said Monday he should’ve gotten the OK from the ethics commissioner before boarding Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ charter flights to the Grey Cup.

Conflict of interest legislation requires MLAs to seek approval for private air travel. Without admitting to a violation, Kinew explained to reporters Monday why he did not seek approval.

“When I get tickets to a (Winnipeg) Jets game and I pay my own way, I don’t have to disclose those,” Kinew said in a scrum in his office.

“So, I figured paying my own way to the Grey Cup, that I wouldn’t have to disclose. But, I talked to (Jeffrey Schnoor) the ethics commissioner (Monday) morning, and he said I should, so I did,” the premier said.

His admission comes after the CBC reported Kinew took a plane chartered by the Blue Bombers to the 2023 Grey Cup game in Hamilton and the 2024 game in Vancouver without approval or public disclosure by the commissioner.

Ethics rules that took effect the day after the October 2023 provincial election say MLAs must not accept travel on a non-commercial chartered or private aircraft — other than one owned or leased by the Crown — that is connected to their official duties or functions unless they get approval from the ethics commissioner.

If the MLA decides it’s required for their duties but they don’t obtain approval, they must then disclose information about the trip to the commissioner within 30 days of travel.

“The rules are clear: the premier and his ministers are prohibited from accepting private air travel without prior approval and public disclosure,” Progressive Conservative MLA Greg Nesbitt said in a news release Monday afternoon.

“There is no indication Premier Kinew followed these basic legal requirements,” said the PC member for Riding Mountain.

He filed a formal request Monday for the commissioner to investigate the trips.

“I do apologize to Manitobans. Obviously, this was something that I should have said ‘Hey, I’m paying for the tickets to the Grey Cup and now you all know about it,’” Kinew said, noting he was sorry to the Bombers “for getting dragged into this.”

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham’s office said Monday that he did not accept a seat on the Bombers’ charter flights to the Grey Cup.

A spokesman for the mayor cited the code of conduct for members of council that says “members shall not solicit or accept any gift or benefit that would, to a reasonable, well-informed person, create the appearance that the donor is seeking to influence the member or gain the favour of the member.”

“I do apologize to Manitobans.”–Wab Kinew

Gillingham attended and his travel costs were expensed as he was representing the city, spokesman Colin Fast said.

During question period, interim PC leader Wayne Ewasko said Kinew thinks he is above the rules.

“For this premier, ethics continue to be an afterthought,” said Ewasko. “The premier could’ve consulted with the ethics commissioner.”

Ewasko has previously called out Kinew for expensing a trip to meet with B.C. Premier David Eby in September and campaigning for his fellow NDP member while there on the taxpayers’ dime.

In the chamber Monday, Ewasko said former PC premiers Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson attended Grey Cup matches but flew commercially, expensed their flights and followed the law.

“I think the biggest concern here is accountability, transparency,” Ewasko said.

The premier defended his action, saying that Pallister and Stefanson billed taxpayers to attend the Grey Cup.

“I went to the Grey Cup and paid my own way — twice,” Kinew said in his office after question period. “And yet here we are,” he said.

“It didn’t even occur to me that something that I paid for I would have to disclose,” he said.

“I figured there’d be no issue. Now that the issue has been flagged, I disclosed it.”

In 2022, when Stefanson was premier, she violated the province’s conflict-of-interest rules by failing to disclose the sale of commercial and rental properties worth $31 million from 2016 to 2019 — including when she was housing minister. Her office issued a prepared statement at the time saying she should have disclosed the sale of the properties, and that it was an “oversight” and would be corrected immediately.

Then-NDP finance critic Mark Wasyliw wrote a letter to the ethics commissioner asking him to investigate the violation.

On Monday, the premier was asked if ignorance of the new ethics legislation is any excuse for violating it, and if he has any regret about not becoming better informed when he took office.

“I spoke to the ethics commissioner… multiple times a week at that time. Probably at least multiple times in the first month. So should I have asked about the stuff that I was paying for in addition to all the stuff that I have disclosed since my time in office? Yeah, I should.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca