REGINA - The temperature got raised during the final day of the Legislature sitting Tuesday, as the Opposition took aim at Premier Scott Moe for his June trip to Toronto.
Moe had been in Toronto on June 11-13 for the US-Canada Summit. According to his disclosure statement for ministerial travel, the trip was to “promote Saskatchewan as a reliable partner for North American energy security.”
But throughout the legislative session the NDP have been blasting the trip, returning to their familiar theme of attacking the Premier and other ministers over travel expenses.
On Nov. 29, the Opposition accused Moe and his entourage of three others of living the “high life” by spending over $800 on hotel rooms for the two days of the summit. Moe later responded that the actual number was actually a little over $446 plus taxes and fees.
On Tuesday the NDP tried a different tack, accusing Moe of spending his time in Toronto doing partisan political fundraising.
“While the Premier says he needed to stay at an $800-a-night luxury hotel to ‘stand up for Saskatchewan’s economy,’ it appears the real reason the Premier charged taxpayers $12,000 for a luxury trip was to attend a partisan gala so he could accept an award,” said NDP Ethics and Democracy Critic Meara Conway in Question Period.
“But not just an award, Mr. Speaker. Apparently the Premier was fundraising as well. So while the Premier put this trip on the public’s credit card, this looks very much like it was a partisan fundraising trip paid for by Saskatchewan taxpayers. Why is the Sask Party government charging taxpayers for luxury hotels so they can fundraise from out-of-province donors and add partisan awards to their trophy shelf?”
That drew an outraged response from Crown Investments Corporation Minister Jeremy Harrison.
According to the Hansard account, Harrison said the Premier worked every day to “promote our province within the country and around the world and defend our economic interests, which is precisely what the Premier was doing on that trip and what he’s done on many, many others, for which he has been vociferously criticized by the members opposite, Mr. Speaker.”
"Why do we engage internationally? Why do we engage across the country? It’s so we can pay for all of the other priorities that we have here in this province — health care, education. It’s how we have been able to increase our export value from this province from 16 billion under the other guys to $52 billion. That’s how you grow a budget from $7 billion to $20 billion, Mr. Speaker. If it were still up to the NDP, Mr. Speaker, they would still be fighting about $7 billion. We have grown the ability to pay for all of the services that people expect because we engage across the country, we engage internationally, and nobody does it better than our Premier."
Press releases and public statements from the New Democrats on Tuesday were even more accusatory. They characterized the Premier as having attended a “secret political fundraiser in Toronto.”
“On June 12, Scott Moe attended the Game Changer Gala at Toronto’s swanky waterfront Guild Inn Estate. The event was put on by the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, an extreme-right lobby group.” The NDP pointed to David Menzies, the controversial Rebel Media reporter, as being there.
The NDP also pointed to video footage which was provided to the media, which the party claimed showed organizers “bluntly soliciting political contributions for Scott Moe and New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party Leader Blaine Higgs.”
As evidence, they pointed to these comments by one speaker: “Although it was brought to my attention that New Brunswick accepts out of province political donations, so does Saskatchewan. I just checked because I was curious. Sure enough it does. So again, you know, we should all want to support these good, solid Premiers that are showing leadership across the country and have the guts to fight the destructive Trudeau government. So again, I would encourage anyone who feels that way to contribute to the political fortunes of these two great Premiers who are here tonight.”
The award Moe was presented with was the organization’s “Game Changer” award, as was Higgs. According to the Coalition’s magazine posted on their website, the organization praised both Moe and Higgs for having “shown leadership in defending parental rights in our public school system and fighting back against the insidious gender identity and critical race theory policies being promoted in our schools.”
The NDP have also pointed to video footage from when Moe was introduced, in which Moe was praised by the speaker for having “unapologetically supported the freedom convoy,” and for being “the first to lift the ill-conceived and unscientific COVID restrictions.”
“So the remarks that we've been able to see from this gala show it was clearly a right-wing, like a far-right, lobbying group,” Conway told reporters Tuesday. “The Premier was introduced as, you know, supporting the convoy, as very clearly facing an election. People were encouraged to contribute to his election campaign. I'm sorry, I don't buy it.”
In the media scrum Tuesday, Moe was grilled by reporters about the event. In response Moe claimed he didn’t remember what the award was about.
“Yeah, I'd have to check what the award was. I think it was something to do with leadership or something like that in the space of economic development,” Moe said.
Moe reiterated that attending the Coalition’s event was not the main purpose of the trip to Toronto, emphasizing he was there for the summit meetings.
“When I was in Toronto, there was a Canada-U.S. Summit on. There was an award being presented to Saskatchewan on the Canadian Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers, of which I attended with another provincial Premier, accepted that award. There was a number of networking events. I attended the Canada-U.S. Summit alongside, I believe it was the governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy, if I remember correctly, building those relationships that are important for Canada, and I would say very important given where we are today in our conversation with an incoming Trump administration south of the border, and I'd say important to the degree that was recognized by the Prime Minister yesterday in his comments in Halifax.”
Moe denied that the purpose was political fundraising for the provincial election campaign.
“No. No, we weren't soliciting donations. We were out engaging on the people of Saskatchewan's behalf. You know, we do this often. Not just in the U.S. or Washington or Toronto. We do it often, and we're likely going to do a significant amount of it.”
Opposition Leader Carla Beck wasn’t sold on Moe’s claims about the trip, or about his not remembering what his award had been about.
“Look, I don't know how I can say this more plainly but the Premier is a bad liar,” Beck said.
Beck accused Moe of “denying the preamble to accepting this award — an award that was presented to him and former Premier Higgs, and an award that was very clearly about support of the convoy and parental rights — again, something that the Premier during the election campaign suggested was his number one priority. I mean, Saskatchewan people expect expect their leaders to be straight with them, even when there isn't video evidence but when there is, I mean, I think that that is insulting to people that they can't see that with their own eyes.”
