Alberta Premier Danielle Smith gave her close friend David Yager a third sole-sourced contract. The $136,000 contract from the Executive Council of Alberta was awarded for professional services. “Simply put, this is Toryland,” said Alberta NDP MLA Samir Kayande (Calgary-Elbow) in a Wednesday statement. “This a return to the corruption, cronyism, arrogance and entitlement that Albertans voted out and that Danielle Smith and Brian Jean campaigned against until they got their hands on power.”.Prior to receiving this sole-sourced contract, Yager obtained a $60,000 one to develop a report on Alberta’s energy future and another for $70,000 to review the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). Last month, Yager was appointed to the AER Board. Alberta NDP MLA Nagwan Al-Guneid (Calgary-Glenmore) called this “over $200,000 of taxpayer dollars given to a close friend of the premier without competition or transparency.”“We don’t know what these professional services are that David Yager offered the Premier’s Office,” said Al-Guneid. “And it seems suspicious and rather far-fetched that David Yager is the only person who can offer these services along with being the only person in an entire province of energy professionals that could report on energy or investigate the AER.”Al-Guneid pointed out the Alberta United Conservative Party did not open competition for any of the contracts and the reports remain unavailable to the public. In addition to Yager’s contracts totalling $266,000, Smith’s leadership campaign manager received two no-bid contracts worth $142,500. Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, who organized her floor crossing from the Alberta Wildrose, received a $253,000 no-bid contract, and a former staff member obtained one for $50,000. Kayande concluded by saying these four examples amount to almost $1 million in taxpayer dollars given to Smith’s friends and insiders in more than one year.Smith said during Question Period in the Alberta Legislature she follows the same rules the NDP did when it was government. “In 2016, the NDP awarded a $500,000 sole-sourced contract to a former BC NDP MLA to support a legal case,” she said. “I guess there weren’t any lawyers available in Alberta.” At the time, NDP MLA Sarah Hoffman (Edmonton-Glenora) said sole-sourced contracts were fine if the best people were picked for them. Smith acknowledged Yager was the best person. Jean said during Question Period in the Alberta Legislature he loves getting questions from the NDP about credentials, qualifications, and resumes. “Because I have often seen all of the NDP appointments,” said Jean. “What you need to be able to do is hold a placard and protest things that mean a lot to people.” Unlike the NDP, he said the UCP will “hire the best people for the job.” He added Yager was the best person for the job. The Alberta NDP condemned the UCP in November for giving a sole-sourced contract to Yager. A document showed he was paid $70,000 to review the AER. The document revealed little about what he had been asked to review. It referred to a review of it and asked him to be done by February.
