Manitoba cabinet minister denies insider trading after selling shares in phone company blamed for 911 outage

A Manitoba cabinet minister is being accused of insider trading for selling his shares in Telus while knowing the company's 911 phone outage may have contributed to a 55-year-old's death.

The Tories filed a complaint with the ethics commissioner Tuesday, alleging Mike Moroz, minister of innovation and new technology, relied on information he only knew as government minister when he unloaded his stocks in the telecommunications company.

The party argued Moroz's actions violated Manitoba's conflict of interest act.

It seems that the "minister was privy to insider information that only he had in regards to a damning … Telus report in relation to the death of a Manitoban when the 911 system went down," Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said.

However, Moroz is rejecting the allegations. He said he was solely acting on public information and media reports when he chose to sell his stocks in Telus, and his decision shows he was going "above and beyond" requirements from the ethics commissioner.

Shares sold 1 month after news

The Tory complaint centres on the timing of Moroz selling his shares.

Public disclosure records show he disposed of his Telus shares on May 13, one day before he named the company in question period for a 911 outage that prevented Dean Switzer's loved ones from reaching emergency dispatch centre. None of their more than 20 calls were answered.

Switzer, 55, died of a heart attack in his home outside Fisher Branch, Man., on March 23.

The story was initially reported by CTV News on Apr. 8 and the next day Moroz sent a letter to Telus regarding his concerns.

A month later, the Progressive Conservatives brought up the outage in question period and Moroz didn't single out the company while answering questions, according to a official transcription of the legislative debate.

He only mentioned Telus by name on May 14, the day after he sold his shares, according to disclosure records.

The next day in question period, Moroz revealed he had read Telus's interim report about the phone outage.

"Mr. Moroz had a private interest, he owned shares in Telus Corporation. He sold those shares while being informed of an internal investigation into a system failure that disrupted access to emergency services," the PC complaint reads.

"This is a textbook example of making financial decisions related to information not available to the general public, and abusing access available solely as a result of his position as a minister of the Crown."

Moroz denied having privileged information. He called the Tory accusations "baseless."

"I acted based on publicly available information and media reporting. If the opposition had done their research properly, they also would have made this determination," he told reporters, who waited 46 minutes for Moroz to address media after the Progressive Conservatives answered questions on the ethics commissioner complaint.

Moroz said he was relying on publicly accessible information, such as Telus's letters to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which can be found online.

"We have no regulatory authority over telecommunications, so there is no conceivable inside information that I could have access to," Moroz said.

"Telus owes me nothing in terms of communication. In fact, neither the interim report nor the final report were sent to my office. I got them online with everyone else."

He added the ethics commissioner, with whom he met shortly after becoming a cabinet minister late last year, had no issue with him owning stocks in Telus.

Moroz said he went "above and beyond what's necessary" in choosing to sell the stocks. The minister's office said that Moroz lost around $1,000 on the transaction, and that his stocks in the company were valued at $10,930.

'No impropriety:' Moroz

"What I wanted to make sure I did was make sure that not only was there no impropriety, but there's no appearance of impropriety," Moroz said.

Public disclosure records only require MLAs to list the shares, held by themselves, their spouse or dependents, in which the value exceeds $5,000.

Moroz added he sold his shares on May 8, but it took until May 13 for the change to be reflected in the disclosure records.

The PCs brought forward the new ethics complaint just days after the party was rapped by the ethics commissioner for trying to push through a silica sand mining project after losing the 2023 election. The commissioner recommended three senior Tories, including former premier Heather Stefanson, be fined between $10,000 and $18,000 each.