Manitoba premier chastises NDP for rejecting results of respectful workplace investigation

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is criticizing the Official Opposition for not accepting results of a third-party investigation that stated an NDP member of the legislative assembly violated respectful workplace policies.

On Friday, a spokesperson for Paul Beauregard, secretary of the Treasury Board, emailed media saying a formal letter from the Legislative Assembly had been sent to St. James NDP MLA Adrien Sala. The spokesperson declined to make that letter available, but said it stipulated Sala breached respectful workplace policy.

The NDP has rejected those results.

"It should be most disturbing to every Manitoban that the leader of the NDP and the member for St. James have sought to trivialize this code of conduct itself, and they have sought to politicize the legislature's independent process," Brian Pallister said on Monday.

Sala alleged last year that Beauregard interfered with the awarding of a major provincial contract to Manitoba Hydro International, the commercial branch of the Crown corporation. 

Beauregard previously worked as an executive at MTS before it merged with Bell and became Bell MTS.

Sala alleged Beauregard prevented Manitoba Hydro International from bidding on a contract to provide networking services to government offices. The NDP maintained they had freedom of information documents suggesting Beauregard told Hydro officials that Hydro International wasn't to bid on it. 

The original 10-year, $120-million deal was signed in 2010 by the previous NDP government. When that deal was to expire, Bell MTS received an extension without going to tender. Pallister said Monday that extension was granted due to the pandemic and because "we didn't think it was the right time to go to the marketplace."

Violation of workplace legislation

The NDP accusation, and a request that the auditor general investigate, set off a chain of events through the fall, culminating in a formal complaint against Sala and the associated third-party investigation.

Sala considered the formal complaint an unprecedented attempt to intimidate an elected official and expose any whistleblowers involved. He said he was asked to turn over information he had related to the accusation, including the identities of journalists and discussions he had with the auditor general.

Pallister and Progressive Conservative MLAs have said Beauregard was doing what he was directed to do by cabinet.

Sala confirmed Friday that the investigation ruled against him, but said he rejects the results. As NDP critic for Manitoba Hydro, he said he was doing his job speak up.

'Abuse of an important process'

Official Opposition Leader Wab Kinew said he and the party stand with Sala and won't be "silenced by the premier's repeated attacks.

"The premier, through his abuse of an important process, is desperately trying to distract from his government's ongoing interference in Manitoba Hydro," Kinew said in a statement on Monday.

"We know this government interfered to raise rates, sell off a profitable subsidiary and close down another piece of Hydro."

The premier suggested it was hypocritical of Kinew to refuse to accept the respectful workplace investigation results. 

He pointed to Kinew's comments following 2018 allegations of inappropriate touching by former NDP cabinet minister Stan Struthers.

At the time, Kinew said political considerations were sometimes put ahead of "doing the right thing" in dealing with that incident, and he said that would change under his leadership.

"Apparently not," Pallister said on Monday. "And Mr. Kinew [at the time went] further to say, how can a party that espouses that it stands up for vulnerable people instead allow people to be victimized and look away? Those are Mr. Kinew's words from three years ago and now what is he doing?"

Civil servant protections

The conflict largely hinges on the definition of a civil servant and what protections they ought to be entitled to under provincial legislation.

Sala previously said he had parliamentary privilege to raise the concerns against Beauregard. On Friday, Beauregard said in a statement Friday he doesn't believe parliamentary privilege should give elected officials "a free pass to engage in the harassment, bullying, humiliation, intimidation and defamation of a public servant."

Political scientist Paul Thomas said late last year Beauregard isn't a career public servant in the traditional sense, but rather occupies a kind of "hybrid political-public" servant role. He is a confidant of the premier and previously donated to Pallister's leadership campaign, said Thomas.

In December, Thomas suggested people in such positions don't necessarily deserve the same level of protections as other civil servants.

A government spokesperson confirmed in January that Beauregard had resigned as secretary to the Treasury Board.