The opposition is alleging that Thompson NDP MLA and infrastructure minister Steve Ashton tried to have his department order flood-fighting equipment from a business owned by a friend of his who has donated to Ashton’s leadership and election campaigns in the past.
Progressive Conservative (PC) leader and leader of the Opposition Brian Pallister said June 23 that he would ask Premier Greg Selinger to demand Ashton’s resignation for what he termed an “undeclared conflict.”
“Their premier knew about this relationship throughout and did nothing about it, didn’t ask the minister to step aside, didn’t try to protect the impartiality of the process, did nothing, in fact, aided and abetted the minister in doing this wrong to Manitoba taxpayers,” Pallister said June 23. “It is essential that he take immediate action to remove this minister from an obvious conflicted situation, an ethical transgression that cannot be repeated which puts our tendering process into doubt and the fairness of our government in doubt.”
The PCs say that Winnipeg restaurateur Peter Ginakes is the sole distributor of Tiger Dams flood-fighting equipment and that Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation attempted to award a sole-sourced contract for $5 million of flood-fighting equipment to Ginakes. That was the subject of a complaint made last year to the Manitoba ombudsman under the Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act.
Steve Ashton told the Thompson Citizen in an email June 25 that the contract Pallister referred to has gone to tender and that no contract has been awarded.
“The only contract that has been awarded was with funding from the federal government,” Ashton said. “The Ombudsman looked at this matter in November and did not find anything at that time. I have already indicated that I welcome the Ombudsman revisiting the issue.”
The PCs also issued a press release June 24 showing that Ginakes and his sister Phyllis made donations to Steve Ashton’s party leadership campaign, his daughter Niki Ashton’s campaign for the leadership of the federal NDP and to the provincial NDP party in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, with the largest donations coming in 2009 and 2011, the same years in which MIT made its largest purchases of Tiger Dams equipment, about $5 million in the 2009/10 fiscal year and approximately $3 million in 2011/12. Steve Ashton ran for the leadership of the provincial NDP in 2009 and there was a provincial election in 2011. Donations from Peter and Phyllis Ginakes totalled about $6,000 in 2009 and more than $4,000 in 2011. During Ashton’s tenure as infrastructure minister, the PCs allege, approximately 70 per cent of flood-fighting equipment purchases have been from Ginakes.
