School finance board faulted in land deal
Mr. Bjornson’s report arrived on Thursday, June 2, but a little too late for oral question period in the legislature. It seems that the report was delivered to media outside before the opposition parties received it. Mia Rabson reports some comments:
OPPOSITION critics yesterday called for the Public Schools Finance Board members to resign or be fired after it was found they failed to properly oversee a school division’s plans to sell off excess land.
Both Tory education critic Myrna Driedger and Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard independently called for the board members to be called on the carpet for not doing their jobs.
“That whole group should be disciplined or replaced,” said Driedger.
You forgot that there are two newspapers in Winnipeg!
The Sun had this article on Friday..
Fri, June 3, 2005
Report faults gov’t agency
School division broke the law
By FRANK LANDRY, LEGISLATURE REPORTER
The Seven Oaks School Division broke the law by getting into the business of land development, but the problem should have been detected earlier by a government agency, states a new report.
“Obviously, the process in place was not followed,” Education Minister Peter Bjornson said yesterday in response to the report.
The Department of Education report states Seven Oaks “did not act within its legal authority” when it began developing Swinford Park in north Winnipeg.
However, the department found the public schools finance board should have been more diligent in its review of documents provided by Seven Oaks before approving the development deal.
Seven Oaks divided up about 12 acres of land in Riverbend two years ago into residential lots. The division spent about $2 million building roads, installing sewers and bringing in water for the new residential development.
Seven Oaks says it made a profit of about $700,000. Yesterday’s report states it’s too early to tell if there was a profit because “all revenues have not been realized, and expenditures have not been incurred.”
Its handling of the situation was “highly unusual,” according to the Education Department’s 14-page report. “There’s been very serious mistakes made, and we’re going to ensure these mistakes don’t happen again,” Bjornson said after releasing the report.
He wouldn’t say if anyone would be disciplined.
Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoureux called the report a “whitewash.” He said the report failed to look at what Bjornson’s involvement was in the whole deal.
Lamoureux called for an independent investigation.
Comment by Grelber — June 4, 2005 @ 21:32