Albertans are being asked to believe the provincial government doesn’t keep copies of every piece of correspondence it receives, including some it formally acts upon.
To say this strains credulity understates the matter considerably.
Yet this is precisely what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith claimed on her Your Province, Your Premier freebie Corus Radio program Saturday – an assertion that warrants detailed clarification by the government.
When she made this claim – which is either incorrect or evidence of serious administrative malpractice – Ms. Smith was blowing off a question by her show’s subservient host about a mystery letter supposedly sent to the province in late March alleging something fishy is going on at the City of Edmonton.
This claim is mixed up in the United Conservative Party’s continuing hostility to Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, a former federal Liberal Cabinet minister, and a number of city councillors who hold views too progressive for the Smith Government’s taste.
It seems likely the UCP would love to find an excuse to remove the council and place the city under a single administrator as a past Conservative government did in 1999 to a school board of which Ms. Smith was a member.
Since the story of the mystery letter is so murky, it may help to clarify what’s happened if we put what’s been said up to now in chronological order.
March 27 news conference
On March 27, at a news conference about an unrelated topic, reporters raised questions about the UCP’s apparent animus toward Edmonton City Council.
One journalist, Breanna Karstens-Smith of Global News, braced Ms. Smith about allegations of fraud and bullying within the city government that she said had been made by a senior advisor to the premier.
In response, Premier Smith brought up the mystery letter.
Here is the relevant portion of the news conference:
Ms. Karstens-Smith: “Has your government received any reports or complaints that the City of Edmonton is awarding contracts to one of the councillors’ associates or partners?”
Premier Smith: “Um, I would say I’ve heard that a letter is coming in to the minister of municipal affairs. I’ve not seen that letter. But it’s, I’d maybe direct you to the minister of municipal affairs to see what his comment is on that.”
Ms. Karstens-Smith: “Yesterday … your chief of staff was telling reporters that he’d heard of fraud and bullying within the city of Edmonton. Presumably he would bring those concerns and allegations to you. So what has your government done about those allegations?”
Premier Smith: “Look, I mean, I don’t want to prejudge what may or may not be in a letter that we’ve been told that we’ll receive and so I just wouldn’t mind seeing the letter and talking to my municipal affairs minister and seeing if there’s anything more that we need to do. But at the moment, I’ve not seen the letter, we’ve not received it yet, I’ve just been told it’s on the way.”
Ms. Karstens-Smith: “Are fraud and bullying the correct words?”
Premier Smith: “I would just say I don’t want to mischaracterize because I don’t know the full details and so I’d rather just wait and see what the letter says.”
March 28 Global News story
Ms. Karstens-Smith’s news story the next day quoted the premier saying the province had “received a number of reports that do have us concerned,” but did not mention any letters other than several written by Mr. Sohi seeking provincial funding for housing, shelters, transit safety measures and the like.
Soon after, though, Global News asked Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver if he’d seen the letter, the existence of which had been revealed by Premier Smith.
Mr. McIver responded: “Just, five minutes ago, received the letter. It’s unsigned. So that’s not helpful.”
Well, that may not have been helpful to Mr. McIver, but it’s helpful to us.
Obviously, the premier knew the letter was coming before it was received, yet the letter is said to be anonymous.
How did the premier know that a letter from persons unknown was about to be received?
To that, Ms. Karstens-Smith revealed in a story a few days later, Mr. McIver further responded: “That’s just a great question. I don’t have an answer.”
Why was the premier’s chief of staff making serious allegations to reporters about practices that could be unethical or illegal in the city of Edmonton? What is the evidence? Did he act with or without the premier’s knowledge when he did that?
This situation is curious, to say the least, and deserves a clear explanation.
FOIP request for the letter
On April 2, Global News reported on Mayor Sohi’s complaint that decades of neglect have led to Edmonton’s current financial troubles and his call for equal treatment with other Alberta cities.
Again, however, there was no mention in that story of the mystery letter, the existence or non-existence of which was continuing to create a buzz on social media.
Then, last Friday, Ms. Karstens-Smith reported that her attempt to procure a copy of the letter through a Freedom of Information request resulted in a statement from the government that it couldn’t find the letter.
According to her story, the response she received said “a thorough search conducted by Municipal Affairs staff did not yield any records responsive to your request.”
The Global story continued: “After three days of asking this week about why that might be, Global News was sent a statement that did not address why a Freedom of Information search cannot find the letter.” Since then, Global’s calls about its FOIP request have not been returned.
Premier Smith’s radio show
On Saturday, Your Province, Your Premier host Wayne Nelson gently lobbed a polite request for an explanation about this to Ms. Smith.
Ms. Smith said: “We were told that there was some ethics concern and so, look, when we receive an ethics concern about a municipal council member, we forward that on to the ethics officer at the municipal level because that’s the appropriate thing to do.” (Told by whom? The supposedly anonymous author of the letter? Or someone else?)
“If a council member received a concern about an MLA, they would forward it on to the provincial ethics officer,” the premier continued confidently. “So the letter was received in Ric McIver’s office and it was forwarded on to the Edmonton ethics commissioner.”
This is not necessarily what would happen.
Regardless, why was there no FOIP record?
Mr. Nelson politely asked again. (Now, remember, as has been noted here before, when the word “look” pops up in one of Ms. Smith’s discourses, it’s a sign a whopper may be imminent.)
“As I understand, it was an anonymous letter,” Ms. Smith said, explaining nothing. (She still hasn’t seen it? But she said in March she wanted to see it.)
“Look, with some allegations that could be defamatory if not true. So, I think it’s best for us to put it forward and leave it in the process. I don’t think we would make every single piece of correspondence that comes into every single office available. It wasn’t a government document. It wasn’t produced by us. That’s my understanding of how the FOIP law works.”
Documents can be withheld, or redacted, for reasons outlined in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. But the requestor must be informed of the reason.
Global News, however, was not told the letter was withheld because it contained harmful information that might not be true. It was told the letter could not be found. How is that possible?
The sniff test
Does Premier Smith expect Albertans to believe that the letter was sent to the office of the Edmonton integrity commissioner with no cover letter explaining how it came into the government’s hands or why it was being forwarded?
Perhaps another FOIP request should be filed seeking the cover letter and related correspondence.
Does Alberta’s premier seriously expect anybody to believe that the letter was casually disposed of after it was sent?
Nothing about this explanation passes the sniff test.
Never a dull moment in Smithville, these days. Just when you think she and her gang might not do something really dumb for a few minutes, this happens. So many questions, so few answers.
First of all how did the Premier know about an anonymous letter before it was received by the government? As McIver so helpfully, (or not) said, that is a good question. If I were him, I would want a stiff drink after having to deal with that good question!
Secondly, what happened to this letter?, which McIver, but not Smith, admitted to seeing. Thirdly why was a copy not kept if it was supposedly so important?
I wonder if those throwing around allegations so casually became concerned about legal problems, so it was decided the best way to abort this whole misadventure was to just lose the letter.
So it was supposedly sent to the city, but I have a feeling it somehow never got there. Perhaps the case of the lost letter is about as graceful a climb down as bear trying to get out of a tree.
For all her polished public relations and communications style, Smith and her gang sure steps in it – often.
In the age of social media, the mantra is: ‘photos or it didn’t happen’. I think we can easily adapt this to this situation with ‘copy of letter or it didn’t happen’.
Judging from McIver’s magnificent gin blossom, I’d say he followed your advice with enthusiasm.
good question. usually its because she had some one send it or some one consulted with her before they sent it. You know the usual stuff and then people like smith stand around like its all news to them.
As I understand it smith and company aren’t that fond of Edmonton, they vote left. O.K. so if there was any wrong doing, of course you consult with the politician who will make the most hay with it. That would be smith. Usually there is an appropriate dept to send these sorts of letters to.
If smith had a hand in it, she better hope it never comes to the light.
Weird claims of “letters” detailing malfeasance at City Hall, that Queen Danielle claims is in the hands of the Minister, Ron McIver, but the Minister himself is not aware of it, smacks of one of those instances where Smith tells the Minister to produce and confirm the letter, or he’ll be thrown under the proverbial bus. Of course, the fact that they claim that the letter is unsigned is even stranger, because that also challenges the veracity of the letter. Stranger and stranger still.
Given Smith’s background as a talk-radio jock and podcaster does reveal something about her mindset: everything, no matter how outragous or nonsensical that comes out of her mouth, is a fact and, therefore, truth, within the realm of her podcast and its audience. This is a trick that is done frequently by the likes of Joe Rogan and Alex Jones, to both hilarious and detrimental effects. It’s like when during an interview on the TV program 60 Min, Hugh Dodds was confronted by a claim that immigrants in the the US were causing epidemics and a threat to public health, while official data reported that any threat to public health was minimal and contained. When he was called out for the validity of his claim, responded by simply saying, “If I say it’s a fact, it’s a fact.” Dodds knows we all live in a post-fact world, where any and all claims are truth. Done and done.
This is Smith’s approach as well. But we’ll have to see if it gets her into legal hot water. But when the public is paying her legal bills, she can pretty much say whatever she wants, ex post facto by her word of mouth.
SOP for Parker and his TBA government minions.
This whole mess begs the question of where the “fraud and bullying” alleged in the alleged letter is to be found.
At this point, are we even surprised? Shame used to be how we knew politicians had morals.
Daniellezebub has an unpleasant habit of referring to everything in Alberta with the first-person singular possessive “my” — as in “my” oil and gas industry, and “my” economy, and “my” minister of whatever. This reeks of autocracy.
The UCP should rename itself as the Ostrich Party. There stick their head in the sand, ignore the obvious and do nothing for Albertans. More so they prefer to pick fights with everyone they can.
Lies about lies about lies.
DS got caught. DS does not let the truth stand in the way of a good story. DS should be working to help Edmonton, not setting them up to fail.
Gee even this site requires to know who you are to post. Yet DS responds to unsigned letters.
Funny, she’s got lots of letters from ME, but she hasn’t mentioned them. And they’re not even anonymous. Look, they must have gotten lost, gosh darn.
When Danielle Smith begins a statement with the word look, she isn’t telling the truth. This letter doesn’t pass scrutiny. It could be something that is fabricated. Most likely, it’s a detraction from the UCP’s very costly blunders. The UCP are basically bullies. Municipalities are their target. In Alberta, municipalities have had to bump up their municipal tax rates, because the UCP didn’t ensure that oil companies pay their property taxes. Ralph Klein also contributed to this mess by not getting the proper oil royalty and corporate tax rates that Peter Lougheed was getting. Recently, Danielle Smith had a fundraising dinner, at $1,300 a plate (that’s the cost I heard). What misinformation was she giving there to the audience? Her hero is Ralph Klein, and he was good at giving misinformation, and people believed him, just like they believe Danielle Smith. We aren’t better off, because of it.
Well, look, I mean, “pants on fire” is an appropriate for the kickoff to wildfire season.
When I was a civil servant, if it wasn’t written down it didn’t happen. Conclusion: there is no written evidence, to date so no malfeasance in Edmonton City Hall. However, Danielle has done a drive by smear job rather badly. Did the letter ever exist?
Lol, I told y’all McIvers a liar… hell say anything to keep enriching himself with our money.
A possible case of monkey see monkey do given that the leader is a serial liar?
No he was previously sanctioned by the ethics commissioner, long before this dog and pony show. When someone tells you who they are, I try to listen.
A retired RCMP police officer friend used to say “ stop playing games with these Reformers trying to pretend they are Conservatives and start having them take lie detector tests and watch them squirm. You can’t believe anything they tell you and this is the best way to prove it”. I bet none of them would agree to that. Smith continues to whine about how Ottawa is destroying us but never bothers to state how they are doing it when true facts prove they aren’t but when hasn’t she lied to Albertans is the question, isn’t it?
“Senior advisor to the Premier” and “Chief of Staff”…
… Meaning Rob Anderson?
Rhys: Marshall Smith is Premier Smith’s chief of staff. Rob Anderson is executive director of the Premier’s Office. It would be fair to describe both as senior advisors. DJC
If Marlaina’s lips are moving, she’s either lying, spouting conspiracy theories or whining about the Feds.
I used to think that Smith, the consummate political lobbyist for Big Oil, was evil but quite slick. Now I think that she may not be just a shameless liar but somewhat off her rocker, unable to separate fact from the delusions of her imagination and the conspiratorial stuff that she has become addicted to on-line.
To whom does one send an anonymous letter about the lying and skulduggery in the AB Premier’s office? While those of us with a moral compass and ethical intelligence find this situation offensive, it is beyond the understanding of most Albertans. They have demonstrated over and over that integrity is not a requirement for their political representatives. I do sympathize with McIver, who seems to be the only UCP MLA who is a little squeamish about these matters. He is probably not long for government.
Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear. Nothing burger all around folks, move along. As an aside, why do Yaseen and Stelmach look like they were weaned on dill pickles in the photo?
I have to say, comments about Slick Rick aside, this is one of the strangest stories I’ve seen in politics anywhere lately and that really is saying something.
Are they really so upset that Edmonton refused to vote for them they’re going this hard or is there something else at play ? Edmonton city council are hardly a bunch of marxists, they voted in more money for the police and for the sweeps, don’t get me started on the oilers, the ice district and the bodies.
I’ll tell you one thing, Nenshi has sold a hell of a lot of memberships in the capital city from what I’m hearing
What did Ed Stelmach do to have to appear in this farce?
His expression would seem to infer that he’d rather be at the dentist.
CovKid: The news conference was not on a related topic. It was about “supporting Ukrainians in Alberta,” so Mr. Stelmach was there, I suppose, as a result of his family’s ethnicity. DJC
Smith is, in fact, a liar veering towards fascism. Any words that come out of her mouth are lies. She is a consummate liar and will never stop. It’s her nature. Sohi is an excellent mayor but according to all the oil working men in our city, Sohi is a loser.
There’s a lot to be said for education in the oil sector and it would not be untrue to say that many oil workers only have a high school diploma at best.
High school may be a bit optimistic. I’ve long said that Alberta must be one of the last remaining places on earth where a person with a grade 10 education can make 6 figures a year. Who needs all that there fancy book learnin’ here in ‘Berta