National Post (National Edition)
MINISTER’S RESIGNATION SOUGHT
Horner failed on Redford spending: critics
said.
After Ralph Klein got in trouble for misusing the planes in 2005, the whole regime was tightened near the beginning of 2007.
While in the same position that Mr. Horner now holds, Mr. Snelgrove said he would A growing chorus of voices is calling for the resignation of Alberta finance minister Doug Horner, a man who was already inextricably linked to ousted former premier Alison Redford’s deficit and debt spending — and is now also tied to her inappropriate use of government aircraft.
Mr. Horner has come under fire since a scathing auditorgeneral’s report last week accused Ms. Redford of using public assets — including government aircraft — for personal and partisan use. She now faces a possible RCMP probe.
Defending himself to his caucus, Mr. Horner sent fellow Progressive Conservative MLAs a long-winded email on Saturday — an email that was quickly leaked to media.
In it, he claims that he took responsibility for misuse by the premier’s office of government assets — but only so far as such responsibility didn’t demand his head on a plate: his ministry, and the treasury board he leads, served merely as booking agents for a system that seemed to rely largely on a ministerial honour system.
In the email, Mr. Horner acknowledged that some members of caucus were calling for his resignation, in addition to opposition MLAs.
Ultimately, however, it was the premier’s office alone that was responsible for her use of flights for personal and partisan purposes, Mr. Horner wrote in his defence.
“The responsibility for abuse of the policy lies with the requestor if there was any abuse,” Mr. Horner wrote in the email, referring back to the airplane policy put in place under former finance minister Lloyd Snelgrove in 2010. “If you request a plane you are responsible for its use. (Is budget responsible if you speed and get a ticket with their rental?)”
Mr. Snelgrove served as president of the treasury board before Mr. Horner, and oversaw the government fleet under former premier Ed Stelmach.
After reading Mr. Horner’s defensive email, the sputtering former minister said it could be safely classified as bulls--t, and added that he thought it was “disappointing.”
“If the Olympics get dodgeball, we’ve got a serious contender for gold right now,” he routinely tell MLAs and cabinet ministers that they could not fly to partisan events, nor could they use the planes for personal purposes, as Ms. Redford did.
This was never a problem under Mr. Stelmach, who preferred to drive, Mr. Snelgrove added.
“On more than one occasion, ministers would go up to the premier’s office and say ‘Gee, that Snelgrove is an a-hole,” he said. “That was what my job was to be.”
Mr. Snelgrove, who has long been critical of Ms. Redford, left the PC caucus after she was appointed leader in 2012.
There were several things he found inexplicable about the auditor-general’s report.
“How could Redford’s daughter have flown some 50 times and that not raise eyebrows in Horner’s office?” he asked. He was further befuddled by reports that Ms. Redford’s office was “block booking” — booking fake passengers on planes and then dropping them from the manifests at the last minute, apparently to allow Ms. Redford to fly alone.
“It can happen once, there’s no question about that — there’s a change of plans, these two people aren’t going. The second time that happens, an eyebrow would go up. By the third time, you would be on the phone to the minister’s office saying, ‘Somebody is playing silly bugger with the bookings,’ ” Mr. Snelgrove said.
In the email to caucus, Mr.
Responsibility for abuse of the policy lies with the requestor
Horner said he wouldn’t be bullied by media or the opposition party — nor would he accept criticism from Ms. Redford’s former chief of staff, Stephen Carter.
“For Steven Carter [sic] and the like to suggest that this was epidemic thru out [sic] our cabinet is to protect themselves from the scrutiny they deserve, in fact some would say it started with him,” he wrote.
Mr. Carter responded: “I thought his statement was pretty reckless and opened the door to me to pursue legal options, but I’m not sure I’m going to do that.”
Adding that “Horner has to resign,” Mr. Carter called the email to caucus poorly thought out and ill-advised.
“This is what happens when you are in a hole and you really can’t think of how to get out,” he said. “When you’re in that place, everything you do and everything you touch makes it worse.”