Big bucks for seats at Selinger speech

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This article was published 17/04/2015 (3294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Tories say they’ve obtained documents showing provincial taxpayers and Crown corporations shelled out more than $20,000 in luncheon fees and sponsorships in support of Premier Greg Selinger’s speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce last December.

Conservative MLA Shannon Martin (Morris) accused the government of stacking the event at a time when the premier was fighting to keep his job as leader of the NDP.

The state of the province luncheon generally draws between 800 and 1,000 people.

“The final NDP lunch bill paid by Manitobans has cleared the $20,000 mark,” Martin said on Friday.

In January, the Conservatives estimated taxpayers had spent close to $4,500 to send 45 government bureaucrats to the event.

“Our original search for information found a smaller number. The NDP had an opportunity to come clean, but instead forced us to file more access-to-information requests to expose the truth,” Martin said.

By extending its requests for information to Crown corporations, the Tories found a lot more tickets were purchased with public money — 99 in total.

Agencies that bought tickets included Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, Manitoba Public Insurance and Travel Manitoba.

Assuming a crowd of 800, Martin said one in eight who attended the luncheon had their way paid through public funds. “It seems a bit excessive,” he said.

The Tories say Travel Manitoba contributed $13,000 in sponsorships and fees for the event.

But Colin Ferguson, president and CEO of Travel Manitoba, said the $13,000 contract obtained by the Conservatives is the cost of a year-long sponsorship agreement between his organization and the Winnipeg chamber.

About half of that total was devoted to the premier’s state of the province luncheon, and the tourism promoter felt it got its money’s worth, he said.

Travel Manitoba had the opportunity to promote its new brand, Manitoba — Canada’s Heart Beats, with the city’s movers and shakers, Ferguson explained. Because of the luncheon, his group landed several private sponsors, he said.

“We felt that there was no better opportunity for us to launch that brand than at an event of that size and magnitude,” he said Friday.

A cabinet spokeswoman said in a statement it has been a long-standing practice for government staff to attend chamber events, including the state of the province.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca