Premier Scott Moe cleared the air on his connection with the WE Charity on Tuesday after the official opposition noted a 260 thousand dollar contract with the charity to “promote student well-being”.
This comes after a similar scandal in Ottawa where an ethics commissioner is underway after the Liberal government gave that same charity a 900 million dollar contract after members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s family were paid 300 thousand dollars by WE charity for speaking engagements.
NDP Education Critic Carla Beck challenged the premier on the timing of the events after he and his wife travelled to Kenya shortly after Christmas as guests of WE founder Craig Kielburger.
In May, the province’s ministry of health announced its intentions to offer a contract of 260 thousand dollars to the charity for their “well-being” classroom program.
Beck says she wants to know what went into the decision to grant WE charity the non-competitive contract in Saskatchewan.
“The fact that this contract was awarded sort of outside the usual process, the indication that this is the only entity that’s able to deliver this content really, I think, deserves some additional scrutiny,” Beck said.
Premier Moe responded by saying it was a personal trip.”We paid for that trip personally,” Moe stated. “We did not get paid in any way for our participation in that trip.
Moe mentioned that he approached the Conflict of Interest Commissioner prior to going on the trip, to which he said there was no conflict in this particular case.
Moe says he is in a much different position than the Trudeaus.
“One, I didn’t receive any money; two, I approached our Conflict of Interest Commissioner immediately before doing anything on the personal side with anyone that’s associated with this foundation; three, there’s a number of other provinces that have already moved on this pilot program – Saskatchewan is not among them at this point in time.” Moe said.
Moe added there were no other charities that were interested in the opportunity except for WE, and that no cabinet presentation has yet to be made on this contract.
(CKRM)
