MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The slow leakage of information from government faucets surrounding the province's dramatic increase in its use of MLA Gary Grewal's Sunrise and Thriftlodge Motels has simply been torturous.
Even if the one-term Regina Northeast MLA was not involved, there would be serious questions about the Ministry of Social Services' policy to always pay normally refundable damage deposits as an accepted cost of emergency housing for social services clients.
Yes, hotels get to charge whatever they want. And yes, there may or may not be a higher likelihood of social services clients causing more damages to rooms. While we lack evidence of that, this is the reasoning of the hotel owners who argue that few of them would even bother to take in emergency social services clients if they didn't get special considerations.
But is paying significantly more fair to taxpayers? And should a sitting government MLA who has increasingly profited since he's been elected benefit from this policy?
Even if all this is coincidental — as the Sask. Party seems to have maintained — isn't it Grewal's job and personal responsibility to ensure he was not unduly profiting after getting elected?
Why not simply be forthright from the very beginning?
This has gone on for five months now. And every so often, there has been a little bit more new information producing more questions than answers.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
So far, the dribs and drabs of information about Grewal's companies' dealings with the government hasn't exactly allayed suspicions.
According to the information emerging from Ministry of Social Services spending estimates this week, Grewal's establishments received a paltry $1,309 in government business from 2018 to 2020. All of this went to Grewal's Sunrise Motel; the Thriftlodge did no government business during that period.
However, since Grewal became a first-time MLA in 2020, the facts are that the two inns in which he has business interests have done $731,194 in government business.
Grewal's Sunrise Motel increased its government business from $12,931 in 2020-21 to $37,041 in 202122 to $220,474 in 2022-23. The figures aren't complete for 2023-24, but in the first six months of that fiscal year, from April to September 2023, Sunrise did $110,887 in government business.
Meanwhile, the Thriftlodge's government business increased from $46,679 in 2021-22 to $163,704 in 202223 to a whopping $139,478 from Social Services from April to September last year. Drip. Drip. Drip.
As the information has slowly leaked out, it has looked worse and worse.
“I wrote to the minister back in February,” said NDP social services critic Meara Conway in Wednesday's question period. “We didn't get an answer for months. When did the minister actually have the information?”
Of course, maybe this just looks bad, and isn't as bad as it looks.
Perhaps most germane, there was never an attempt by anyone in government to direct business toward Grewal's motels, Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky said Wednesday.
In fact, a senior Social Services official said there is no way departmental staff could know who owns the motel when they bring in distressed clients.
That said, there has been no clear explanation from Grewal as to why his businesses suddenly and dramatically started getting increasing social services clientele after he was elected.
In fact, the last time he publicly spoke of the matter was when the NDP first raised it last fall. At that time, he said he was hands-off when it comes to the day-today operations and couldn't produce receipts on his government dealings.
Asked about the fairness to taxpayers of hoteliers essentially keeping damage deposits for government clients, Grewal said that was industry policy.
Asked at the time whether this was a fair policy, Grewal said it is what hotel owners required. We haven't heard from Grewal since.
One gets that the NDP are likely taking aim at Grewal's seat and Makowsky's seat, which is one reason they keep coming back to this issue.
But the government has made matters worse for itself by not being forthright in its explanations.
Drip. Drip. Drip.