REGINA - Opposition New Democrats were livid over the latest Provincial Auditor’s report released on Tuesday.
The report included a review of the Ministry of Social Services including the procuring of hotel rooms. The report from Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett noted that the Ministry’s processes did not specifically consider best value when procuring hotel rooms prior to March 2024, increasing the risk of the Ministry not spending public resources wisely. Her recommendations called on Social Services to centrally collect reliable data related to the two new pilot projects being introduced for hotel procurement, and for Social Services to document reasons for hotel room selections in its case management system. She also called on Social Services to publicly disclose payments made to vendors, like hotels, to increase transparency.
The NDP responded by taking aim at Gary Grewal, the former Regina Northeast MLA who was found in conflict of interest prior to the election over his involvement in two hotels that rented out rooms to Social Services clients.
On Tuesday night the NDP signalled in a news release that it would bring an emergency motion at the Standing Committee on Human Services to call on Grewal to “attend a future meeting of the committee as a witness to answer questions from committee members about the Ministry of Social Services’ hotel policies and the Conflict Of Interest Commissioner’s opinion of October 21, 2024.”
But when the Human Services Committee met Wednesday morning, that attempted motion did not even make it to the floor. Instead the Sask Party majority on the committee moved a motion to adjourn before that happened. The three NDP MLAs on the committee opposed the adjournment, but it carried by a 4-3 vote.
In a statement released after the meeting adjourned, Regina Elphinstone-Centre MLA Meara Conway continued to demand answers.
“We want Gary Grewal to come before a legislative committee to face questioning so we can prevent this magnitude of a scandal from ever happening again,” Conway said. “There are many unanswered questions. How was Mr. Grewal permitted to inflate his rates so dramatically? After the Commissioner got involved, how is it that he was able to continue to engage in government contracts contrary to the Commissioner’s advice? The people of Saskatchewan are ready for change and sick and tired of the scandal, waste and mismanagement from this Sask. Party government; however, they have chosen yet again today to protect their and deny any form of accountability.”
On Tuesday afternoon following the release of the Provincial Auditor’s report, Conway had been critical of the government’s handling of the hotel rooms issue.
“I think it's disappointing to see that there weren't sufficient checks and balances in place at the time that Mr. Grohl took these government contracts and inflated rates. My takeaway is that the Ministry of Social Services still hasn't figured this out,” said Conway. “There still isn't sufficient checks and balances in place to ensure that we're tracking this and ensuring that there's accountability.”
Conway was also sceptical of the pilot projects announced by the Ministry of Social Services to address the issues, such as a pilot to receive three quotes from hotels before booking hotel rooms.
“Especially with the three quotes pilot, it sounds like it's a bit of a mess,” said Conway. “The other pilot around procuring five nights of hotels in Regina and Saskatoon, it just sounds like we have totally insufficient information….. Right now, I just have a big, huge question mark about what the Ministry is doing to address the underlying issues and whether we're actually even working towards a sufficient solve.”
During Question Period on Tuesday, when grilled by Conway about whether Grewal would be held accountable, Minister of Social Services Terry Jenson pointed to work already done at the ministry to meet the Provincial Auditor’s recommendations..
“The member would well know that that individual is now a private citizen, and we're focused on the auditor's recommendations moving forward, and we're working on the three that are partially finished, and we've also completed one other. So that's what our focus is on now, is moving forward and not looking backward.”
Another NDP motion also blocked
The NDP emergency motion on Grewal was not the only one that ended up getting shot down at the Human Services Committee.
A proposed emergency motion from the new Cumberland MLA Jordan McPhail that the Standing Committee on Human Services “conduct an investigation into the rising price of food in Northern Saskatchewan and the impact of high food prices on the health of Northerners” was blocked from being introduced, due to the committee’s Sask Party majority having moved to adjourn the meeting.
“The people of Saskatchewan send us to this Legislature to take action and bring forward solutions – not to play petty politics,” McPhail said in a news release.
“This was an opportunity to get everyone around a table, from all sides, to fix a crisis. The fact that we’re dealing with scurvy in 2024 should be sending alarm bells down these halls.”
