Questions Are Piling Up about Hockey Freebies for UCP Insiders

There’s another shoe that needs to drop before the United Conservative Party’s embarrassing skybox scandal goes quiet and Alberta can go back to sleep as Premier Danielle Smith and her political advisors doubtless profoundly wish we would.

To wit: Did UCP ministers or political staffers avail themselves of corporate flights to NHL playoff games in Vancouver and perhaps in Sunrise, Florida? And if so, who paid?

Thanks to the reporting of the Globe and Mail’s Carrie Tait, we already know who bought skybox tickets — at least some of them — for well-connected members and employees of Smith’s government.

Tait’s July 18 report confirmed some of the rumours heard on social media and in political circles about cabinet members and senior staffers accepting corporate skybox tickets during the playoffs.

But if the Calgary Stampede rumour mill, at least, had it right, the skies over B.C.’s Lower Mainland and perhaps around Miami International Airport too were a free-flight zone during the Stanley Cup finals.

So inquiring minds want to know: Who was on those corporate jets? What did they pay, if anything? And if passengers didn’t pay, who did?

Smith, it would seem, is just as determined that it’s none of our business. Which, naturally, raises suspicions that some well-connected folk didn’t take WestJet and pay for their flight themselves, as Smith told reporters she did.

This has led to some interesting exchanges between Tait and Smith, a journalist and a former journalist who, by the sound of it, are not members of a mutual admiration society.

On Monday, Tait tried to pry more information from Smith at a news conference about Calgary’s heavily subsidized new arena project, but Smith tried just as hard to skate away from any clear answers.

The premier’s carefully parsed answers may have had the sound of the truth and nothing but the truth — but certainly not anything approaching the whole truth.

“No rules were broken,” Smith said testily to Tait. “I did not take a private plane anywhere. I fly commercial. I flew WestJet to get to Vancouver. It was the only game that I visited outside the province....”

Tait responded: “Are you aware if any of your staff or cabinet ministers taking a flight?”

Smith: As I said, all have their own ethics disclosure requirements…

Tait: That’s not a no, premier.

Smith: Well... if you have anyone you want to pose this question to, you should do that.

Tait published a longer transcription of this exchange in a series of tweets on X.

This, in turn, led many commentators on social media to mockingly conclude that the premier of Alberta thinks what her own cabinet ministers and political staffers get up to is none of her business.

On Tuesday, at an otherwise not very interesting Alberta government presser about education funding, Smith and Tait tangled again about who paid for the flights.

When the floor was opened for journalists’ questions, Tait asked the first one.

Tait: My first question is for the deputy premier, Mike Ellis.… Minister Ellis, yesterday the premier disclosed she’s gone to three hockey games as a guest of others, and she had said it’s up to staff and ministers to disclose their own information, so I’m wondering how many games you went to and who hosted you?

(It must be noted at this point that neither Ellis nor Smith appeared to be particularly pleased by this line of questioning.)

Ellis: One game. Hosted by the Edmonton Oilers.

Tait: ... Thank you very much, minister. For the premier, yesterday you had said that you are responsible for your staff when we had asked them, and you basically said if we had questions for other people such as ministers and your staff that we should ask them. We have been asking your staff repeatedly. We have been asking cabinet ministers, if you aren’t responsible for the actions of your staff, who is?

Smith: Well, let me tell you how the ethics rules work. So, first of all…

Tait: You know, I understand…

Smith: No, I don’t think you do. So, first of all, no government money has been spent on any of the enquiries that you’re making. That’s number one. Number two, what private individuals choose to do with their private money is not governed by the ethics commissioner. Number three, MLAs do have disclosure requirements, no MLAs are allowed to take private flights.

An expense under $250 does not have to be reported. Expenses of $250 to $1,000 do have to be reported in an annual disclosure to the ethics commissioner, and anything above $1,000 has to be reported within 60 days. And so, those are the rules, and I expect every staff member, and I expect every MLA, to follow them.

Tait: Premier, you wrote the rules. You rewrote the rules. You made them easier to accept gifts. And your staff does not have to disclose stuff…

Smith: The staff have to disclose to the chief of staff, correct.

Tait: Right, but not…

Government staffer: OK, Carrie, we’re going to go to our next question...

Tait: … but will you disclose to the public what gifts your staff has accepted?

Smith: Look! I have arranged a meeting, I have asked for a meeting with the ethics commissioner, as has the chief of staff to me, and if there are any interpretations that he needs to give me, if there are any modifications to policy, I’m looking forward to getting his answers. But as I said, I expect all staff, and all MLAs, to follow the rules.

Government staffer: Thank you, Carrie. Let’s go to our next question here.

Trust me, there was nothing more of interest in that particular news conference.

We can be pretty sure, though, that there will be more efforts to answer this particular very interesting question.

And, sooner or later, it almost certainly will be answered, whether the premier, her ministers, and her political staffers like it or not.