NDP wants Tory leader cut out of power debate
Ethics watchdog asked for ruling on conflict-of-interest allegations
The Alberta NDP caucus chairwoman wants a ruling from the ethics commissioner on whether Progressive Conservative interim leader Ric McIver should recuse himself from debate on power companies.
In a letter sent to the ethics commissioner on Wednesday, NDP caucus chairwoman Heather Sweet wrote that McIver’s wife operates Brighter Futures Energy Inc., which appears to create a conflict of interest when debating electricity in the province.
That’s been a hot topic in the legislature this fall, with the government moving Tuesday to cap electricity rates, announcing vast changes to the market on Wednesday and dealing with ongoing political fallout from a lawsuit against power companies over power purchase agreements.
McIver said that if he thought he was doing anything wrong, he wouldn’t have asked the question, but he’s leaving it up to the ethics commissioner to make a ruling. He said he would have more to say once a ruling was made.
McIver said the first time he spoke to the ethics commissioner about the issue was on Wednesday morning, after the NDP news release was issued.
In a Wednesday interview, Sweet rejected the suggestion the government was trying to stifle debate on the government’s electricity initiatives, saying the issue was about MLAs being “open and transparent.” McIver’s wife’s business interests were properly noted in his ethics disclosure filings.
The NDP believes the relationship contravenes the Conflicts of Interest Act that says an MLA can’t “influence or seek to influence a decision of the Crown to further a private interest of the member (or) … a person directly associated with the member.”
In question period on Tuesday, McIver accused the government of “doing everything in your power to run these companies ... out of business.”
In the letter to the commissioner, Sweet compared the situation to a debate in May about predatory lending, where PC MLA Richard Starke recused himself because he had a family member sitting on the board of one of Alberta’s credit unions.
In McIver’s case, he “actively and vocally sought to initiate a discussion” on the government’s electricity legislation, she wrote.