Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Aug 06/01) - Jane Groenewegen, Hay River South MLA, minister of health, and former NWT deputy premier, says she hopes some good will come from the conflict controversy that has swirled around her .
 Jane Groenewegen |
Jane Groenewegen: I don't know... maybe with a better process in place for new cabinet ministers who would be going from a business background into the cabinet.
I did get the advice as everyone knows from Bob Clark, the acting conflict commissioner. When you run a small business, you do rely heavily on the advice of other people. Most people who run a small business have an area of expertise and quite often, if you don't have a lot of formal training in business, your strength comes from some natural ability that you have in business, either people skills or something.
What you end up doing is relying on the expertise of other people, like accountants and company lawyers. The concept of being quite reliant on that type of advice is something that is familiar to me.
So when I received the advice from the acting conflict commissioner, that this is the trust agreement and this is what you sign and then you step away from the company, I just took that at face-value. I didn't proceed to studying the legislation or anything. Professional advice is professional advice and you tend to accept that.
N/N: Was your blind trust ever reviewed, when you became a member of cabinet?
JG: Yes. The trust agreement had to be approved by the acting conflict commissioner, Bob Clarke. He was assisting us in setting it up along with our accountant. We met together in Edmonton. Even the trustee needs to be approved by the conflict commissioner.
But never in the course of those discussions did the issue come up as to any kind of a follow-up that needed to be undertaken.
So I felt that signing-off on the trust head had essentially removed me from the company.
N/N: When (Conflict of Interest Commissioner) Carol Roberts came on board, did she ever have the opportunity to review your trust agreement on a one-on-one basis with you?
JG: I believe she did have an opportunity to review my trust agreement. There was that allegation made by Mr. Miltenberger, with respect to driving Rick's vehicle, which was registered with the company. As a result of that, she had an opportunity to review my trust agreement and that is something that is in the normal course of her duties; to have a look at, and familiarize herself with it.
N/N: And she never warned you of a problem with it at that time? Or brought anything to your attention?
JG: Not specifically related to any things that needed to be done as a result of the trust agreement or any kind of follow-up.
The trust agreement removed me from the company, but the paperwork that needed to be done to reflect that, was something that was never followed up on. There was never any discussion on who's responsibility it was to ensure that happened.
So when she reviewed the trust agreement, it would not have become necessarily apparent that that work hadn't been done.
It's always a busy time when a new cabinet and new ministers are sworn in and at the time, we had some relatively new staff in place.
It just wasn't something that I felt I got the kind of advice on that would have helped me avoid this.
N/N: Why did you make the tape?
JG: Why did I record the conversation?
Unfortunately, there is still very much a process going on, that will bring this out into the open, I believe.
I think that as a result of the continuing mandate of the special committee on conflict process, as a witness I'll have an opportunity to speak to that.
I feel that I had to make it. I had good reasons why I had to protect myself. All I can say is that it's good that the public -- through the special committee will get to the bottom of this.
N/N: Did Mr. Bayly know you were recording that conversation?
JG: Mr. Bayly is also going to be called as a witness in proceedings of the special committee and I think it would be fair to him to let him speak for himself on that.
N/N: Did the Premier know you were recording that call?
JG: No.
