Smith says letter about City of Edmonton impropriety to remain sealed
Episode Stats
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193.77235
Summary
The Alberta government has received a letter about allegations of wrongdoing within the City of Edmonton. Why hasn t the Alberta government released this letter? I spoke with Minister McHugh s team, and when I asked for the letter, the request was declined. Well, I understand the letter is written anonymously, and if you don't know who your source is, there's a level of due diligence that has to happen to determine whether the allegations are even true.
Transcript
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So the Alberta government has received a letter about allegations of wrongdoing within the city of Edmonton.
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Why has the Alberta government not released this letter?
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I spoke with Minister McHagher's team, and when I asked for the letter, the request was declined.
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Well, I understand the letter is written anonymously,
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and if you're going to make serious allegations and you don't know who your source is,
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there's a level of due diligence that has to happen to determine whether the allegations are even true.
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The other is that we do tend to like our municipalities to be self-governing,
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and if there is an issue, we think the most appropriate body to deal with it is the city solicitor.
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So you can maybe ask Rick McIver what he intends to do with that,
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but I would be inclined to defer to the city to do the investigation.
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Okay, and my follow-up question is on a similar topic.
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So yesterday, Edmonton Mayor Emergeet Sohe downplayed the potential for provincial intervention
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when it comes to the city of Edmonton and its finances and misconduct and all that.
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We understand there's some serious issues that they're dealing with,
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and if they would like our assistance in helping to manage that, then we're on standby.
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At the moment, they haven't asked for assistance.
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I've asked the Minister of Municipal Affairs to be in touch with them
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to see if there's anything that he needs to be aware of
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I don't believe that they've taken him up on that.
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So, again, I defer to Minister of Municipal Affairs to see if he sees any reason to take it further.