Year after promising to sell biz, cabinet minister still owns convenience store

Nearly a year after a Manitoba cabinet minister held a news conference to say he would voluntarily sell his business after he violated provincial ethics rules, the business still hasn’t changed hands.

A spokesman for Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures Minister Ian Bushie said Tuesday a sale is in the works for Grandpa George’s gas station and convenience store, located in Hollow Water First Nation.

The process is “now underway and will be completed in a timely manner,” spokesman Caedmon Malowany said in an email.

Questions about when Grandpa George’s was put on the market, why it hasn’t sold yet and who the prospective buyer is were not answered.

“The ethics commissioner has been notified and will be kept updated on its progress,” Malowany said.

Bushie, who was not available for an interview, was not required to sell the gas bar after ethics commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor ruled last September that the member for Keewatinook inadvertently violated the new Conflict of Interest (Members and Ministers) Act.

At that time, Bushie announced he would sell the business that’s been in his family for 28 years, saying: “I want to go above and beyond.”

Grandpa George’s, which is overseen day-to-day by a manager, had a government contract for many years to provide groceries and supplies to workers who fight wildfires in the area. The agreement allowed for the store to provide up to $100,000 in groceries and supplies but the largest amount it billed in a fiscal year was $44,549.80 in 2021-22.

Under new conflict of interest legislation that took effect after the 2023 provincial election, contracts in existence at the time of an MLA’s election are permitted, but renewals and extensions are not.

The ethics commissioner found Bushie broke a rule when he renewed the gas bar contract with the provincial government on April 1, 2024. That agreement was cancelled by the government on June 3, 2024, the day the PCs raised the matter in the legislative assembly. It has not been renewed, Malowany said Tuesday.

MLAs must also include any contracts with the government in their disclosure statements, and Bushie contravened the law by failing to do so, Schnoor’s report said.

Schnoor said Monday that MLAs must file an amendment to their disclosure statement within 60 days of any material change, including acquisitions or dispositions. Once filed, the amendment is posted to the ethics commissioner website, he said. Bushie’s most recent disclosure was June 26 for private air travel to attend Poplar River First Nation’s inaugural high school graduation.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca