Manitoba ethics commissioner faults former premier for pushing mining project

WINNIPEG — Former Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson and two of her Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers violated the province’s conflict-of-interest law and should be fined, the province’s ethics commissioner ruled Wednesday.

In a 100-page report, ethics commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor said Stefanson, then-deputy premier Cliff Cullen and then-economic development minister Jeff Wharton acted improperly by pushing for the approval of a silica sand mining project after the Tories lost the Oct. 3, 2023, election to the NDP.

Despite the election loss, the three Tories tried to get the Sio Silica project approved before the new NDP government, led by Wab Kinew, was to be sworn in, Schnoor wrote. Their actions violated the Conflict of Interest Act and contravened the caretaker convention — a long-standing parliamentary principle that forbids outgoing governments from making major decisions.

“The caretaker convention stands at the very core of our democracy,” the report said.

“A government that loses an election has lost the confidence of the people and has lost the legitimacy to do anything beyond maintaining the status quo until the new government can take office.”

Schnoor is recommending fines of $18,000 for Stefanson, $12,000 for Cullen and $10,000 for Wharton. The legislative assembly gets to make the final decision.

There was no evidence that the three politicians would have had any financial gain had the project gone ahead, Schnoor wrote, but their actions amounted to improperly furthering the interests of other people.

Stefanson, in a written statement from her lawyer Wednesday, said she talked with the incoming NDP government about the project.

“I had no obligation to do so but reached out to the incoming government and fully considered their views before deciding on what to do. No licence was issued to the applicant by my government,” the statement read.

“None of the decisions I took in the period before the new NDP government was sworn in were made for any purpose other than to further and protect the public interest.”

The Canadian Press was unable to contact Cullen, who, like Stefanson, has left politics. He told Schnoor that he had simply sought information and did not pressure anyone, but that was contradicted by other evidence, the report said.

Wharton, the only one of the three who still holds elected office, was not at the legislature Wednesday. He apologized in a written statement late Wednesday night and said he acted on an issue that could have led to billions of dollars in investment for the province.

“It was never my intention to breach any convention or parliamentary tradition,” he wrote.

“I apologize for any of my conduct which was found to fall short of my parliamentary obligations or personal standard of ethics.”

The mining project would have created thousands of wells over 24 years across a large swath of southeastern Manitoba and created many jobs, although only an initial phase was being considered for approval.

The NDP government rejected the project in February 2024, citing the potential impact on drinking water among other concerns.

The conflict of interest first came to light after Rochelle Squires and Kevin Klein, two other former Tory cabinet ministers, said they were called by Wharton after the election and pressured to award the project an environmental licence. They both said they refused because of the caretaker convention. Wharton denied the accusation in a media interview in December that year.

Kinew said the report is history-making.

“The premier of the day here was found to have broken the law and not had constitutional legitimacy,” Kinew told reporters.

“I hope Manitobans, in fact all Canadians, take a look at this and see how sad it is when a government that loses power tries to exercise its final gasps in such an unethical way.”

The legislature will likely wait until after the summer break to decide whether to accept Schnoor’s report and impose the fines, Kinew said.

Obby Khan, a former cabinet minister under Stefanson who was elected this spring as Tory leader, said there is a need to clear up what can be done under the caretaker convention.

“I accept the rulings of the commissioner … I also accept that there needs to be an update within the caretaker convention as well, so that this doesn’t happen going forward,” he said.

Klein, who lost his seat in the election, called on Wharton to resign his legislature seat.

“There’s a line between serving the public and serving political interests, and in this case that line was clearly crossed,” he said.

Sio Silica said in a statement the company was not the subject of the investigation and was not found to have acted improperly. It has renewed plans for silica sand extraction in Manitoba.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 21, 2025.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press