Notion that Boyd was treated like anyone else hard to swallow

Premier Scott Moe may be right that Bill Boyd was treated like everyone else … by the courts, after he the violated the law.

The once-powerful economy minister was fined $35,000 after pleading guilty to violating the Wildlife Protection Act ($7,000) and the Environmental Management and Protection Act ($28,000) for illegal riverbank modifications (that he now must pay to remediate).

Boyd’s conviction Tuesday was certainly about punishing him for what he did rather than who he was.

Less clear, however, is how he arrived at his privileged state and whether the Saskatchewan Party government did enough to dissuade him from arriving there.

“In all of the circumstances, one would have to place Mr. Boyd’s efforts to comply and avoid the harm caused at the very low end of the diligence scale.

His actions throughout, at a minimum, were highly reckless,” wrote Judge R.D. Jackson in the decision.

Consider Judge Jackson’s wise words not just in the context of these particular wrongful acts, but in the entire sequence of events, including earlier promotion of this project to potential Chinese investors.

Treated like anyone else? The real question now is how much did the Sask. Party government do to aid and abet Boyd’s sense of entitlement?

Just a day after the decision came down, NDP Opposition Leader Ryan Meili reminded us in the legislature Wednesday that Boyd had promoted his irrigation project to investors in China in March 2017 by falsely claiming to still be economy minister and long before he received any approval to proceed from the Water Security Agency (WSA).

Conflict of Interest Commissioner Ron Barclay reported last year Boyd “was not presenting himself as a mere private business person and farmer” in China and had “inaccurately represented the involvement of the government of Saskatchewan in this irrigation project.” Because of this, former premier Brad Wall removed Boyd from caucus, but not before his scheduled retirement when he called Boyd “the DNA of the Sask. Party.”

Meili also noted Wednesday “Mr. Boyd pressured the Water Security Agency and was able to get a difficult-to-get licence more quickly than usual.” An indignant Moe scoffed at this, telling Meili that Boyd was treated “exactly the same fashion as any other individual” and that “everyone in this province is treated in an identical fashion in this type of an incident.”

After reporters Wednesday challenged Meili on his assertion, the NDP leader said he had evidence showing pressure was applied to the WSA. That information was WSA emails obtained by the NDP caucus through freedom of information requests. One April 28, 2017, email showed the WSA was well aware that “this is Bill Boyd, MLA, former Minister of the Economy” and that it “sounds like there is some urgency to get this done.”

Court documents had already shown the WSA was aware on May 25, 2017, that “not only had the irrigation construction been started but that what was being done was not in compliance with his submitted application.” Notwithstanding, Boyd was granted approval Aug. 9, 2017. How could this have happened?

Interestingly, another opposition FOI-obtained WSA memo dated June 17, 2017, that Meili read into Hansard during Thursday’s question period, showed the WSA had been informed of an “unscheduled meeting ” between the deputy ministers for agriculture, environment and then premier Brad Wall’s office (Alanna Koch, who would later run for the Sask. Party leadership) to “discuss the project.”

According to Moe and WSA officials (including the WSA president who wrote to Meili), there was no special consideration or pressure (not withstanding the WSA’s own 2017 emails) in approving Boyd’s applications. Moreover, that Boyd was heavily fined shows the system worked.

But neither Moe (who had a conversation with Boyd about the project, but insists he had nothing to do with approving it) nor WSA officials can cite previous involvement of a deputy minister to the premier. And is it ever a true success story when the matter is settled by heavy court fine?

Somehow, Boyd’s treatment still seems different.