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Letter to Ethics Commission

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Letter to Ethics Commission 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. Given the school’s burgeoning enrolment, two modular classrooms have been approved for William Reid School and should be in place for the 2015-16 school year.” [Emphasis added] Source: http://www.votedirks.ca/news/open-letter-gordon-dirks-parents-elbow-park-william-reid-earl-grey- schools/ A search of the Alberta Education website and the CBE website (screen shots of both websites are attached) show that no announcement has been made by either Alberta Education or the CBE with respect to any of the modular classrooms requested by the CBE. In an article in Metro Calgary by Jeremy Nolais dated October 24, 2014, Nolais writes: Dirks was out door-knocking Friday afternoon and unavailable for an interview, according to campaign manager Alan Hallman. Hallman agreed that only the William Reid modulars had been approved, but said that decision came as a result of opposition parties “cranking up a whole bunch of parents during a byelection to politically activate them.” “The minister, he’s going to look after Calgary-Elbow, (and) made a stand,” Hallman said. “He was worried about these parents and what the opposition was making this into and he made a decision.” [Emphasis added] Hallman’s remarks are very troubling because they suggest that the Minister made the decision to award the portables to William Reid in order to appease “worried parents” in the constituency he is contesting. This appears to be blatant misuse of his office for political and personal gain. I also note that the Minister has not made any decision on the schools that ranked higher on the CBE list. As a result, I believe there is sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation into this matter. Yours truly, Greg Clark Alberta Party Leader .
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