‘ Secret e- gaming event’
Opposition MLA Steven Myers asks whether taxpayers funded a weekend of golf and fine dining
Did t axpayers pay f or a swanky secret weekend of golf, drinks and fine dining for a group of e- gaming insiders? That was the question Opposition MLA Steven Myers posed to Finance Minister Allen Roach Thursday in the legislature. Myers has spent the last few weeks grilling government on the province’s e- gaming scandal, mainly focusing on emails of former government officials that were mysteriously deleted. But on Thursday he asked for details of a weekend event in 2011 aimed at pitching P. E. I. as an Internet gambling regulator for the country as well as a proposed financial services hub.
An itinerary for this weekend was included in an email contained within a private investigator’s report, tabled in the P. E. I. legislature in 2014.
A hospitality suite, surf and turf dinner, golf rounds and drinks with P. E. I. government and e- gaming officials, includi ng f ormer premier Robert Ghiz’s then chief- of- staff Chris LeClair, were part of the weekend of events, according to the email. On Thursday during question period, Myers filled in some more details — the golf game was at the provincially owned golf course, Crowbush, and the surf and turf dinner was at Sims Restaurant in Charlottetown. Myers also said Crowbush was opened a day early in May 2011 for this e- gaming event. “How much did the government pay for this secret e- gaming event at Crowbush?” Myers asked. But Roach would only refer Myers back to the auditor general, who investigated the e- gaming scheme at the request of the premier and delivered a scathing report in October that chastised the venture for its inappropriate secrecy and overall disregard for taxpayers’ interests. “The auditor general has spent, and her staff, over 5,000 hours digging into this file, they’ve looked at over tens of thousands of documents, and the auditor general has interviewed all the principals involved in this,” Roach said.
“The specifics are with the auditor general. I have no knowledge of … any kind of a secret deal or something that happened at a golf course.” Myers then asked about an invoice for over $ 8,000 from the Gahan House for a “catering function/ restaurant tab,” from the same period in 2011. The invoice was billed to Paul Maines, an official with Capital Markets Technologies ( CMT), one of the companies that worked with government on e- gaming. Maines and CMT are also behind the $ 25- million lawsuit that was dismissed earlier this year by the Supreme Court but which may be revived in the coming months.
“If taxpayers spent $ 8,143 and change on surf- and- turf for the players involved in this e- gaming scandal, would you consider that to be appropriate?” Myers asked. Roach said he was “not aware of any dinners,” and repeated that Myers should take his questions to the auditor general at public accounts. He also said he was “dismayed” the Opposition doesn’t have confident in the AG’s investigation since it appears they are now doing their own sleuthing. Myers didn’t like this at all. “That is a complete joke. Never once did we say that,” he said. “There are people who want answers right across Prince Edward Island.” He demanded a retraction and an apology, something the Speaker has yet to rule on.