Talk about a train wreck. Any would-be politician should closely examine Education Minister Peter Bjornson's handling this week of the land-deal mess involving the Seven Oaks School Division. It's a prime example of how not to handle a potentially explosive situation.
By bending the truth and playing with some words, Bjornson has dug himself into a very deep hole. He's also raised some very serious questions about what sort of grasp he has over his department.
Documents released on Monday by the Opposition Tories show the Seven Oaks School Division spent $2 million worth of taxpayers' money over the past two years developing and selling more than 70 residential lots in the north Winnipeg suburb of Riverbend.
The money was spent on things such as constructing roads and building sewer pipes to the new development.
Under provincial laws, school divisions are not allowed to develop and sell "fully serviced residential building lots."
It's really a no-brainer. Divisions like Seven Oaks should use taxpayer money exclusively for the education of children, not to construct a suburb.
Seven Oaks reportedly made $700,00 off the deal, but it appears they broke the law doing it.
When asked by Opposition MLAs in question period whether he was aware of what the division had been up to, Bjornson had no answers. He told reporters on Monday that he only learned of the situation that day.
Turns out that wasn't quite true.
On Tuesday, Bjornson admitted he was made aware one year ago through a letter that the division was dividing up some 12 acres of land originally set aside for a high school and selling off the parcels for residential development.
"I was aware of some allegations," he told reporters, arguing he "was not aware of the extent of the development that had taken place" prior to Monday.
Poor spin, Peter -- you either knew or you didn't.
The signed letter Bjornson received on May 2, 2004 from a concerned taxpayer states Seven Oaks "is acting as the developer ... of a community called the Swinford Development. Minutes from the division meetings indicate that they (the Seven Oaks School Division) are paying out rather large sums of money to contractors for installation of roads, sewers, and all the other necessities required to build the community."
It was right there in Bjornson's hands one year ago.
Despite not being aware of the "extent of the development," Bjornson on Tuesday acknowledged receiving the letter and forwarding the allegations of wrongdoing to the Public Schools Finance Board (PSFB). The board, in turn, sought a legal opinion. That came back last month saying Seven Oaks was in contravention of The Public Schools Act.
To complicate matters even more, Seven Oaks apparently had sought and gained the approval of the PSFB before getting into the land development business. As minister of education, Bjornson is the one who oversees the board.
Bjornson has ordered an investigation to sort out exactly what happened here.
This whole thing shows the education minister is still an amateur in the high-stakes game of politics.
Bjornson stumbles, trips and falls when the going gets tough. He gets nervous when faced with any sort of controversy.
That's what happened here. Like a deer caught in the headlights, he didn't know how to respond when faced with some tough questions on Monday about this land deal. So he denied, denied, denied.
Now groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are calling for Bjornson's head.
"This minister should be fired," said Adrienne Batra, the CTF's Manitoba spokeswoman. "He should immediately be relieved from his duties due to the fact he is clearly unable to handle his own files."
Bjornson should have just admitted being aware of the Seven Oaks deal in the first place. He should have admitted that somehow, somewhere along the way, the wheels had fallen off the proverbial bus.
But he didn't.
Tory education critic Myrna Driedger was right this week when
she called this a "big mess" -- but there's no one to blame for it
other than Bjornson. The minister of education has been the author of
his own misfortune.