Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 8, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba B2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A N investigation into allegations the former Manitoba Tory gov- ernment tried to get a contro- versial 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 investiga- tion,” 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 pro- posed by Sio Silica southeast of Winni- peg. Hundreds of pages of documents, emails and text messages have been re- viewed 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 Whar- ton 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 author- ity 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 inter- ests ahead of Manitobans’ and for vio- lating the Conflict of Interest Act. The complaints were based on public statements made by former environ- ment 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 environ- mental 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 eth- ics commissioner extensive power to re- ceive 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 assem- bly impose sanctions if an MLA has contravened the law, including: a repri- mand; a fine of up to $50,000; suspen- sion of a member’s right to sit and vote in the assembly for a specified period or until a condition imposed by the com- missioner is fulfilled; and declaring the member’s seat vacant. The new rules broaden the definition of a conflict, so “a member is in a con- flict of interest when the member exer- cises 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 dur- ing 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 com- pleted, 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 sit- ting 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 inves- tigation.” Thomas said it may be difficult to get to any firm conclusions in the case. 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 consti- tutional caretaker convention — if the alleged behaviour occurred — clearly breaks the rule that an outgoing gov- ernment should not make major, con- sequential, hard-to-reverse decisions that constrain an incoming govern- ment, 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 viola- tions,” he said. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca NEWS I LOCAL WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2025 “This belief that, ‘Oh my god, we cer- tainly don’t want to upset the federal government, we’ll let them decide when you can see it.’ No, that’s not what the agreement says,” Mayes said. “I’m the one voting in late January, so I take some offence at this. We’re go- ing to have more votes on this Housing Accelerator (Fund) as the year goes on, and I want the public to have the facts, and I want the elected officials to have the facts.” While the agreement between the Canada Mortgage and Housing Cor- poration and the City of Winnipeg re- quires the city to make reports public within one year of being submitted to the federal body, it also says that re- ports should be published in an “open, transparent, effective and timely man- ner.” Coun. Sherri Rollins, chairwoman of city council’s property and develop- ment committee, said she wasn’t sure why the report wouldn’t be provided in advance. “If my colleague feels like he needs to do a (freedom of information request), that’s not good,” she said. “I’m certainly going to reach out to him.” malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca HOUSING ● FROM B1 CAROL SANDERS Ethics commissioner writing report after ‘complex’ probe into alleged Tory conflict Woman accused in fatal assault sought addiction treatment LAST March, Anissa Christy Pompana and her lawyer told a judge in Brandon that she wanted to change her life, and talked about a tentative plan to attend a treatment program in Winnipeg for her relapsed methamphetamine addiction. “I’m gonna do good in treatment now … and I don’t want to come back to Brandon, I’m going to try to go to treatment in Winnipeg,” Pompana told provincial court Associate Chief Judge Donovan Dvorak after pleading guilty to theft under $5,000, fraudulent use of a credit card and a slew of court order breaches. Her lawyer, Denby McLean, told the judge Pompana’s son had died in a house fire at her mother’s home in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in 2023. “A grief spiral fuelled by a meth ad- diction” led Pompana back to drug use and criminal behaviour, much of which she couldn’t recall,” said McLean. She was sentenced to time served and two years of unsupervised probation. “Sometimes, a change of environ- ment or a change of location, it gives a change of perspective a little bit, and maybe it’s not a bad idea to be in an- other community if that’s going to give you a different start,” said Dvorak, af- ter offering her condolences for the loss of her son. On Dec. 27, in a back lane behind Maginot Arena, near De Bourmont Avenue and Dugas Street in Windsor Park, the 33-year-old woman fatally assaulted a man she had just met while socializing with mutual acquaintances elsewhere hours earlier, Winnipeg Po- lice Service homicide detectives allege. Byron Frederick Moose, 50, of O-Pi- pon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, died in hos- pital after he was found badly injured in the lane at about 4:30 a.m. Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service personnel had been called for a med- ical event, but soon determined Moose had been assaulted and they called for police. WPS spokeswoman Const. Dani Mc- Kinnon said Tuesday that Moose and Pompana had met while socializing at another location — she was not sure where — before walking out together prior to the assault. His death marked the final homicide in Winnipeg in 2024. A pair of latex gloves and bandage packaging missed in the cleanup after paramedics left the scene were left in the lane between the arena and homes on Dugas Street the day after Moose died. Pompana, who is also from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and has a Grade 10 education, has a record of mischief, theft, assaults and court order breach- es. At the time of her sentencing in March 2024, Pompana was “effective- ly homeless,” said McLean, and some of the breaches were tied to her going places where she had been previously ordered not to be to seek shelter. “We’re basically just waiting for her to get into a facility” to treat her meth problem, said McLean. At the time of her son’s death in a fire, McLean told court, Pompana was in treatment in Winnipeg, and her mother looked after her three kids. The lawyer noted that Pompana’s grandmother had attended residential school, while her father had fallen victim to a homicide when she was seven years old. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca ERIK PINDERA MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS AN ICICLE BUILT FOR YOU Charles Roy (left) and Rolly Magne adjust the water for optimal ice creation at the St. Boniface ice climbing tower on Monday. The system needs to be checked three times a day while running, and it usually takes about two weeks to create the finished tower. Temperatures need to be below -15 C to build up ice. Today’s daytime high of -9 C won’t be of much help, but colder temperatures are forecasted to return by Sunday. ;