Alberta Premier Danielle Smith did not hold back when confronted about she and her cabinet ministers attending games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs when invited to box seats by various organizations. Smith confirmed an Invest Alberta Corporation (IAC) Board member hosted her at a game in Vancouver, Explore Edmonton at one in Edmonton, and Oilers Entertainment Group at another one in Edmonton. “But we’re only syncing up our system with the same one that they have in Calgary, where their unelected leader included box seats to watch the Calgary Flames in April 2015; single ticket from the ATCO to see the Flames in 2014; more Flames tickets in March of 2017; tickets to a Western Final football game; multiple tickets for opera, ballet, Cirque du Soleil, theatre shown in his tenure as mayor” said Smith in a Thursday speech during Question Period in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. “Oh ya, plus tickets to an Olympic soccer game in England.”.Alberta Official Opposition Leader Christina Gray started off by saying Smith’s priorities are out of step with Albertans. “During the Oilers playoffs, the premier and at least five of her cabinet ministers attended games in box seats, with none other than the company that brought us the completely failed Turkish Tylenol,” said Gray. “It’s only because of investigative journalism, not government accountability and transparency, that Albertans even know which cabinet ministers went.” Since the Alberta government has tried to conceal details about this ordeal, Gray asked Smith to name which cabinet ministers went to these box seats. In response, Smith said cabinet ministers have to report events they are invited to as guests to the ethics commissioner. “I’ve gone to games, I’ve gone to derbies, I’ve gone to air shows, I’ve gone to rodeos, and many of my members have as well,” said Smith. “That’s part of the job.” While cabinet ministers did go to games, she said she expects them to report them to the ethics commissioner and believes there will be no issues. However, Gray said this might have been old news had Smith released the list of all of the cabinet ministers who went to these games. “Because the reality is the only reason that she is actually meeting the ethics requirements is because she changed them to lower the bar to a standard that Albertans don’t find acceptable,” she said. “The premier said Invest Alberta hosted her.” When the Alberta NDP wrote to IAC, it said it did not host or pay for she or cabinet ministers to attend games. She questioned if she would end the scandal now and tell the truth. While Smith had gone after Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi for games he went to as Calgary mayor, Gray said it is more of the same every day. “We ask for accountability from this premier, and she talks about Justin [Trudeau] or she talks about Naheed,” she said. She said Trudeau and Nenshi are people she obsesses over. With the ethics rules, she said she changed them to benefit her and Albertans watched it happen. Right now, Gray said Smith “has no problems with her ministers and political staffers hobnobbing in luxurious box seats with the company behind Turkish Tylenol.” She called on her to come clean, own up to the scandal, and tell Albertans who attended the games. Smith noted it is a job requirement for Nenshi to hold a seat in the Alberta Legislature. “That is why I encourage some accountability on the other side,” she said. Rather than interact with Gray, she said she would love to be asking questions to Nenshi. She added there are a few more days for an NDP MLA to step down and give him a seat. Sources said to the Globe and Mail in July Alberta cabinet ministers and political staffers attended games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs in Edmonton as guests of a person whose business was involved in bringing in Turkish children’s medicine to the province and attended another one in Vancouver with tickets given to them by a director of a provincial Crown corporation. While the cabinet ministers and staffers were allowed to attend these games, the Alberta government changed the ethics rules in 2023 to enable them to accept gifts more easily.The legislation mandated MLAs disclose such tickets in particular incidents and enabled Smith’s chief of staff to determine their acceptability.
