Ousted UCP MLA Accuses Premier’s Husband of Secret Lobbying

Former Alberta United Conservative Party infrastructure minister Peter Guthrie has accused the husband of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith of working as an unregistered lobbyist, which allegedly included an attempt to meet with Guthrie about a major rail link between Calgary and Banff.

And Guthrie went further in the legislature, questioning whether the alleged involvement of Smith’s husband in confidential government business related to the rail link had “crossed the line into undue influence over government, policy and spending.”

In August 2024, The Tyee first revealed that Smith’s husband, David Moretta, attended an hour-long confidential government meeting at McDougall Centre, the provincial government’s Calgary office, on Sept. 26, 2023.

Smith’s schedule, obtained by The Tyee through Freedom of Information requests, shows her office arranged the meeting. Senior members of her staff attended but she did not.

The meeting was in relation to a private proposal to build a rail link from Calgary to Banff. Two private companies have heavily lobbied both the governments of former Alberta premier Jason Kenney and Smith’s current government.

Guthrie resigned in February as infrastructure minister and was subsequently ejected from caucus after he publicly called on Health Minister Adriana LaGrange to step down over what the Opposition NDP has dubbed the CorruptCare scandal.

That scandal, now the subject of several investigations, including by the RCMP, involves multimillionaire businessman Sam Mraiche of Edmonton, who received hundreds of millions of dollars of sole-source contracts from the government during COVID.

As reported by The Tyee in February, Mraiche also made $300,000 in a three-month period through the purchase and sale of a property to Alberta Infrastructure when Guthrie was still minister. Guthrie has said he had no knowledge of the transaction and ordered an internal review before he resigned.

Fiery words in legislature

In a tense exchange in Alberta’s legislature Tuesday that can be watched online, Guthrie, who represents Airdre-Cochrane as an Independent, pointed out that in Alberta there are no rules that bar the spouse of a minister or premier from being a lobbyist. He then asked Smith if her husband had ever been registered as a lobbyist when she was premier.

A visibly angry Smith said she was “tired of the rumors and innuendo and slander against my family that I have been hearing about for months.”

She said her husband, who owns a restaurant, had never registered as a lobbyist “because he has never, ever lobbied any government, including ours. And I would ask for the innuendo and the slander to stop.”

Guthrie countered with the allegation that Smith’s husband had “indeed lobbied this government under the guise of a rail expert.”

And he asked why Moretta had not “proactively disclosed this given that the premier is a staunch supporter of rail, particularly the Calgary to Banff proposal, and given the insider advantage reeks of preferential access and concerns of influence peddling.

“To the premier, are decisions in your office being made in the public interest or to benefit the well-connected few?”

Smith did not respond. UCP House Leader Joseph Schow rose to defend the premier and her husband.

“I find the nature of that question absolutely repugnant and disgusting,” Schow said, adding that there is a long-standing tradition of not attacking the family members who can’t defend themselves. He said Guthrie should apologize.

After Speaker Ric McIver cautioned Guthrie about attacking people who were not present, Guthrie responded. “No apology will be forthcoming.”

McIver cut off Guthrie’s microphone. “You will be cautious, or you will lose your question.”

Undaunted, Guthrie keyed off Smith’s earlier statement that her husband had “never, ever lobbied any government, including ours.”

Guthrie told the legislature he had been invited to a meeting with Moretta and “I declined the request because I had concerns about the appropriateness of such a meeting.”

Moretta, he said, met with government officials, including from the offices of ministers and the premier, and “it is rumoured he may have obtained confidential documents during those meetings.

“To the premier, with your interest in rail and your husband’s efforts, has this crossed the line into undue influence over government, policy and spending?”

Schow again rose on Smith’s behalf, calling the “attack” on the premier’s husband disgusting.

“I would also challenge that member to take this line of questioning outside of the chamber and see where it lands that member.”

‘Legitimate questions,’ says Guthrie

Guthrie responded to an interview request from The Tyee today with this statement:

“The conduct displayed by government members in the House reflects a troubling pattern: when confronted with legitimate questions about clear conflicts of interest, they respond with hostility and threats. Instead of engaging with concerns about transparency and potential corruption, they resort to aggressive deflection. This kind of behaviour is contributing to the growing erosion of public trust in the UCP government — particularly in the premier.”

The internal documents obtained by The Tyee of the 2023 meeting showed that Liricon Capital, and its business partner Plenary Americas, provided a letter to Smith in advance of the Sept. 26 meeting.

It’s not known if Moretta was given access to that letter. And it is not known if this is the confidential document to which Guthrie referred in the legislature on Tuesday.

In August, Smith, through her press secretary, acknowledged that her husband had attended the meeting but she did not address how the premier determined it was appropriate for her husband to attend a confidential government meeting.

Smith and her husband “share a long-standing enthusiasm for rail as an efficient form of transportation for goods and people,” the statement said, and they often discuss ways to expand passenger rail service in the province.

“As the premier values his opinion on the issue, he was invited to attend a meeting at the premier’s request so she could hear his opinion about what he heard.

“Mr. Moretta has absolutely no connection to Liricon and has not lobbied on behalf of any entity (rail related or otherwise) at any time,” the August statement said.

Liricon owner denies ties to Moretta

The internal documents also show that Smith’s senior staff, including then chief of staff Marshall Smith, executive director Rob Anderson and executive assistant Jeremy Hexham, met several times with Adam Waterous, who along with his wife Jan, own Liricon.

Waterous is an investment banker turned oil tycoon. He and his wife also own the Mount Norquay ski resort in Banff and they hold a long-term lease on the historic Banff railway station. In addition to the rail line, they want to develop the railway station and build a gondola directly from it to their Mount Norquay ski resort.

Liricon has proposed building a $2.6-billion rail link between Calgary International Airport, downtown Calgary and the Banff train station. To be feasible, the plan would require hundreds of millions of dollars in mostly federal funding.

The Waterouses previously told The Tyee they didn’t attend the same meeting as Moretta and had no concerns that he had. They also said they have never met Moretta and he has no connection to Liricon.

In late April 2024, the Smith government announced it had set aside $9 million in the budget to help fund a passenger rail master plan for the province that would include a fast train between Calgary and Edmonton.

Smith and Moretta were later photographed in the observatory car of a restored steam train with Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen.

This latest revelation by Guthrie is bound to raise yet more questions about Smith’s ethics and judgment at a time when she is under pressure by factions within the UCP to advance a separatist agenda for the province.

In May 2023, Alberta ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler found Smith had contravened the provincial Conflicts of Interest Act when she contacted then justice minister Tyler Shandro about criminal charges against Calgary street preacher Artur Pawlowski.

“In the whole scheme of things, it is a threat to democracy to interfere in the administration of justice,” Trussler said in her report.

If you have any information for this story, or information for another story, please contact Charles Rusnell in confidence via email.