October 25, 2014 Marguerite Trussler,Q.C. Office of the Ethics Commissioner Suite 1250, 9925 - 109 Street NW Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5K 2J8 Via Email:
[email protected] Dear Ms.Trussler, Re: Request for an investigation into the conduct of the Minister of Education On behalf of the Alberta Party, I am formally requesting that you conduct an investigation of Alberta Education Minister Gordon Dirks with respect to his apparent “approval” of two portable classrooms for William Reid Elementary School, which is located in Calgary Elbow. Comments made by his campaign manager, Alan Hallman, in the Calgary Metro newspaper suggest that Minister Dirks made the decision to influence the results of the by-election. At their October 14 meeting, the Calgary Board of Education (the “CBE”) approved a ranked list of 11 schools in Calgary that qualify for modular classrooms and subsequently submitted that list to Alberta Education for approval. William Reid was ranked #7 on the list. See pages 62-63 of the PDF of the Calgary Board of Education agenda which is located at http://www.cbe.ab.ca/Trustees/agendas/20141014- public-agenda-regular-meeting.pdf. On October 22, parents of students at William Reid received an email from the school’s parent council which contained a link to Gordon Dirks political website. The letter sent by the school council, which is attached as Attachment 1, states: “I can confirm that I have spoken with Trustee Bowen-Eyre of the CBE and they are in receipt of correspondence from the Minister of Education’s office advising that they strongly support modulars going into William Reid for the 2015 - 2016 school year.” However, on Gordon Dirks campaign website it states: “The Department of Education recently received the CBE’s latest request for new modular classrooms, which included more learning space for William Reid School.