PCs love scandals so much they make them up

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/11/2016 (3525 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is nothing the new Progressive Conservative government loves more than a scandal.

Premier Brian Pallister and senior staff have devoted an inordinate amount of their time and effort to revealing all manner of scandal committed by the former NDP government.

The message in these scandals is clear: the former government had no will to control spending and a penchant for violating governance at Crown corporations and agencies.

The former NDP government certainly earned much of the grief it is now receiving. Under premier Greg Selinger’s watch, the NDP was mired in deficit-financing. It was repeatedly criticized for ignoring tendering rules. In addition, there was the Tiger Dam affair, a scandal involving a cabinet minister manipulating procurement rules to provide a multimillion-dollar contract to a company represented in Manitoba by a close personal friend.

If you include the bitter civil war in which five senior ministers tried to force Selinger from office, you have a well-stocked quiver of arrows to shoot back at the NDP for years to come.

However, it appears the Tory government’s thirst for political revenge has not been quenched by these embarrassing narratives. To satisfy that craving, Pallister’s political staff appears to be working nearly around the clock to manufacture other scandals — many of which say less about the NDP and more about the Tories.

The most recent example was a story this week about a Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries proposal for a “new liquor mart concept” store in True North Square, the largest private real estate development ever in Winnipeg. The facility will feature office space, hotels, retail and other services and condos. At the announcement for the project in February, True North revealed MLL would have a part in the development of main-floor retail space.

Flash-forward to the Crown corporation committee hearing Wednesday, where Tory MLA James Teitsma engaged in some clearly scripted exchanges with MLL chairwoman Polly Craik and CEO Peter Hak about what was described as a 50,000-square-foot liquor store. Craik told the committee the former NDP government had “directed” the board to get involved in the True North project, and that she could not “find any documentation leading up to the decision that was made by the board.”

Hak went much further, claiming there were “no documents to support what we were going to do with the 50,000 square feet,” he said.

Turns out Craik and Hak were being less than honest.

Documents obtained by the Free Press and additional information obtained by sources close to the deal, confirm that planning for the new Liquor Mart was robust and completely out in the open. Consultants were hired to hone a business plan that had enough detail and merit that it convinced True North — among the most shrewd companies ever to break ground in Winnipeg — to sign a lease option.

More importantly, the space was never intended to be a Liquor Mart alone. It was to be a multi-faceted food-and-drink hub, with a large grocery store component, a much-needed addition to downtown revitalization.

The claim by Craik and Hak that they knew nothing of the planning, the consultant’s work and the grocery store component of the plan is not credible. Nor is the claim this project was devised outside normal governance channels at the Crown corporation. That claim suggests True North would be foolish enough to stake its reputation on a plan drawn up by the NDP government on the back of a cocktail napkin — another incredulous assertion.

Remarkably, when he was asked about the story, Pallister decided to double-down on the deception. He claimed the documentation obtained by the Free Press was not related to the True North project. Sources with intimate knowledge of the project said the concept outlined in the document described exactly what was agreed to between True North and MLL.

There are a lot of moving parts to this story, but when you boil it down you get this: a new Progressive Conservative government using political influence to direct the board and senior executives of a Crown corporation to allege the former government used its political influence to direct the same corporation to develop a Liquor Mart/grocery store in True North Square.

At issue in the True North/Liquor Mart story is a policy of the former government for Crown corporations to revitalize downtown Winnipeg. You can see the policy at work in Manitoba Hydro’s decision to build a state-of-the-art headquarters on Portage Avenue to consolidate its staff. The NDP never made any secret of the fact that, whenever possible, it would channel Crown corporation investments in property and development to the downtown to create collateral benefits for the core.

It was reasonable for the former government to employ this strategy, just as it is also reasonable for the new government to halt or cancel any Crown corporation project until the province’s fiscal house is in order. Crown corporations operate under the authority of the provincial government. As such, the premier and cabinet have a big role to play in directing policy at Crowns. Any suggestion it was inappropriate for the NDP to direct policy at the Crowns is disingenuous. We know that because the new PC government has gone to some lengths to direct Crown corporations to attack the NDP.

It should be said the new government can do anything it wants to do as long as it is prepared to be honest about its reasons. Lamentably, the PCs have demonstrated an unfamiliarity with that concept. Consider this incomplete list of deception and misinformation:

• On Friday, Infrastructure Minister Blaine Pedersen confirmed the province will spend $502 million on highways next year, and $500 million a year for the following four years. Missing from the news release is the fact that is a cut of more than 20 per cent over what the province spent this year (the last of the NDP administration) and considerably less than what was planned over the next five years.

• Last month, Tory minister Rochelle Squires accused an NDP MLA of yelling “take your pants off.” A recording of the exchange disputed that allegation. A review by Tory Speaker Myrna Driedger concluded no such thing had been said. Despite this, Tory senior staff worked for days to try to make this into a scandal, making Squires look extremely foolish.

• In his first budget, Finance Minister Cameron Friesen claimed the NDP had left a $1-billion deficit from its last year in office. When public accounts were released in the summer, it turned out Friesen inflated the deficit figure by nearly $150 million.

• In announcing the elimination of 112 senior management positions, Friesen claimed the ranks of civil servants had grown by more than 33 per cent over the last 10 years of NDP government. Figures from the Civil Service Commission showed the increase was only 26 positions — less than one per cent.

OK, we get it. The NDP was bad at everything. The NDP spent money like a gambling addict on a Las Vegas bus charter. It was the most dishonest and incompetent government in the history of Manitoba. Message received.

But take notice: Those allegations lose their impact when the “new” government, as it likes to call itself, can’t give anyone the straight goods.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca