McIver taking ethics boss to court over ruling, fine

PC leader’s lawyer says decision curbs what MLAs can ask in question period

Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Ric McIver has launched a legal challenge to a decision by the province’s ethics commissioner that saw him fined for breaching the province’s Conflict of Interest Act.

A judicial review will be held in Court of Queen’s Bench early next year into Marguerite Trussler’s ruling in January that McIver was in conflict when he rose in question period last fall to assail the Notley government over its plan to cap the retail price of electricity, as well as its carbon tax that came into effect Jan. 1.

Trussler said McIver was trying to influence the government to drop those policies, which would benefit his wife, Christine, who owns a small energy retailer.

McIver’s lawyer, Brendan Miller, said Trussler is interpreting the law in a way that was never intended.

“For the first time in Commonwealth history that we know of, an ethics commissioner has regulated what sort of question someone can ask in question period,” Miller said in an interview Thursday. “It’s a dangerous precedent, I think, for parliamentarians.”

Trussler cannot impose sanctions, but recommended as a penalty that McIver pay $500, apologize to the assembly and “recuse himself from any question period activity, debate or vote in relation to the electrical utility industry in Alberta for as long as his wife continues to have her business.”

It is believed to be the first time Alberta’s ethics commissioner has levelled a financial penalty on an MLA.

McIver said earlier this year that he accepted Trussler’s decision.

Miller said the ethics commissioner’s office maintains there is no avenue to appeal a commissioner’s ruling, so the court will first have to determine whether it has the jurisdiction to review the decision.

The case will only be heard in January 2018 because of ongoing problems with delays in a clogged Alberta court system.

IAN KUCERAK/FILES Ric McIver initially accepted Marguerite Trussler’s decision that he recuse himself whenever the electrical utility industry was being discussed or voted upon in the legislature. His wife, Christine, owns a small energy retail company.