'Skategate': How the Liberals got a free ticket to a campaign controversy

The public reaction to Here & Now's reporting on how Liberal MHAs and cabinet ministers appear to have scored 34 free tickets to an ice show in Marystownlast year in exchange for a $1,500 grant illustrates an interesting divide.

On the one hand, condemnation for Mark Browne, the MHA for Placentia-West Bellevue, for how his assistant allegedly leaned on a local skating club to secure the tickets.

On the other: There's nothing to see here folks. It's only $1,500 dollars for 34 politicians and guests to see Kaetlyn Osmond skate in her hometown.

It's chicken feed. Move on.

But often in politics, small stories have larger consequences and reveal bigger truths about accountability. (And, it needs to be underscored, that this story has nothing to do with Kaetlyn Osmond herself.)

Remember Bev Oda and her $16 glass of orange juice? Ironically, what got the federal Tory cabinet minister in trouble in 2011 (she eventually resigned) was the fact that she provided receipts and billed taxpayers for her juice, and other parts of a swanky trip to London.

No documents to back up account

In the Marystown story, it's the opposite: there are no receipts or documents to back up the Liberals' account for how the tickets were bought, or whether a $1,500 grant that appeared out of nowhere was used to lean on the skating club to cough up the tickets.

In a statement to CBC News, Browne explains he used his personal funds to buy the 34 tickets, so no receipt for the $640 purchase was required.

But an email his constituency assistant, Tara Planke, sent to the local skating club portrays an entirely different kind of transaction:

"With the extra funds that we can secure for the club, the granting of these tickets will be more than covered from a monetary perspective," she wrote.

Planke took an extra step: "I have included the names of those who are planning to attend."

That list included many of the people you can see in photos and video that were taken at the Kaetlyn Osmond Arena for the April 2018 event: Dwight Ball; cabinet ministers Lisa Dempster and Al Hawkins; Mark Browne; Planke herself; and various MHAs.

Questions without answers

There are many unanswered questions.

First, why did Planke link the "granting of the tickets" to the "extra funds" that would "more than cover" the cost?

Shouldn't her email have simply said: "Mark would like to buy 34 tickets for the premier and other dignitaries and VIPs he has invited. He's paying for this out of his own pocket. Attached is a cheque for $680"?

In his statement, Browne also said: "The premier gave me clear direction last spring to purchase tickets for the event. The tickets used by me and my guests were purchased. No free tickets were used."

Presumably, Browne paid cash for the 34 tickets.

Ball was clear about his own transaction. "I ordered the tickets through Mark," he said. "That was money I would have given to Mark. He paid for those tickets for me."

Ball added, "That grant wasn't awarded to pay for tickets."

That statement about the $1,500 grant is the crux of the story. Were those tax dollars used to buy 34 tickets for Liberals or not?

There are no receipts for the tickets.

There is no record of an application from the skating club for a grant, although officials for cabinet minister Lisa Dempster (who attended the event) did provide a budget prepared by the Town of Marystown which shows a $1,500 line item for the Ice Crystals.

The problem is the Ice Crystals Skating Club never asked for a single penny from anybody.

Browne's assistant dangled the "extra funds" in front of the club's executive in connection with her request for tickets.

Members of the club's executive won't speak on the record, but CBC News has been informed members felt as if they had no choice but to accept the money.

What else do we not know?

If you're on the "this is fake news" side of this story, you won't like how this article ends. Stop reading.

When Chief Justice Derek Green examined the failures of MHA accounting procedures in 2007, in the wake of a legislative spending scandal that embroiled all three main parties,he came up with 80 recommendations.

Some have bearing on this story.

One recommendation says that the House of Assembly "place responsibility with individual members to conduct their public and private affairs so as to promote public confidence."

So when an MHA uses his own cash to buy something as minor as three dozen figure skating tickets, particularly when he claims it's at his boss's direction, is it unreasonable to expect a receipt?

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And it leads to a larger question: If something small is kept "off the books," what about the bigger stuff?

If this is indicative of how government works, what else do we not know?

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