Publicly punished Tories turn ethics spotlight on NDP, accuse technology minister of insider trading

Only days after the release of a scathing ethics report that shone a harsh light on Manitoba’s previous Tory premier and two of her cabinet ministers, the party now in opposition is trying to flip the script.

The Progressive Conservatives have filed an ethics complaint that accuses an NDP cabinet minister of insider trading.

The complaint filed with the Office of the Ethics Commissioner by LaVerendrye MLA Konrad Narth says Manitoba Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz sold his shares in Telus after he learned of an investigation into a system failure that disrupted 911 services.

That disruption has been linked to repeated failed attempts to call 911 on March 23, when 55-year-old Fisher Branch resident Dean Switzer suffered a fatal heart attack.

The death and the Telus outage were reported on April 8 by CTV news. On April 9, Moroz wrote to the president of Telus, formally raising concerns about the network outage, asking for an explanation and solutions to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

“A month later, the Opposition raises for the first time in question period this issue,” Moroz (River Heights) told reporters Tuesday.

In the chamber, PC MLA Josh Guenter (Borderland) said the minister was asked repeatedly about 911 failures, “and he only issued the damning Telus report after he sold his shares in Telus. Why did the minister suppress the report until he had sold his shares?”

Moroz said that when he first joined cabinet, ethics commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor advised him he wasn’t required to dispose of the assets in question — “however, we’re required to hold ourselves to a higher standard and I took steps to dispose of those assets and have updated my file accordingly.”

Moroz told reporters Schnoor had no problem with his shares in tech and telecom stocks such as Telus and BCE (Bell Canada), but he disposed of them anyway on May 8.

“I did this because I wanted to go above and beyond the recommendations,” Moroz said outside the chamber. He said he sold the stocks at a loss. He lost $1,000 on Telus and $10,790 on BCE.

As for allegations of “insider trading,” he said the CRTC regulates telecoms and all of the documentation and news reporting is publicly available.

“If the Opposition had done their research properly, they also would have made this determination,” Moroz said.

The ethics complaint, he said, is the PCs’ way of avoiding questions about their own ethics scandal involving former premier Heather Stefanson, her deputy premier Cliff Cullen and then-economic development minister Jeff Wharton, who remains a sitting MLA. They face fines of $18,000, $12,000 and $10,000, respectively, for their part in violating the caretaker convention by trying to get a controversial sand mine licensed after they’d lost the 2023 election.

“This is an opportunity for them to deflect — that’s what they’re doing,” Moroz said.

The Progressive Conservatives say Moroz violated Manitoba’s Conflict of Interest (Members and Ministers) Act.

“The minister of innovation and new technology had insider information about a damaging report from Telus,” PC Leader Obby Khan told reporters.

He said Moroz then sold his stocks. The Tories accused Moroz of refusing to publicly name Telus as the carrier involved in the 911 outage until after he sold his shares in the company.

Narth, who filed the ethics complaint, said “there is a tremendous red flag around the issue.”

“He is the minister of technology and the premier puts him in charge of the portfolio overseeing tech firms. That’s concerning.”

The complaint said “Moroz should never have been the lead minister on a matter in which he had a personal financial stake. He should not have had access to information unavailable to the general public.”

Moroz said he’s looking forward to speaking to the ethics commissioner, who confirmed receiving the complaint Tuesday.

— With files from Maggie Macintosh

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca