(January 13, 2023, St. John’s) – Barry Petten, PC Official Opposition House Leader and MHA for Conception Bay South, says he has written a letter to the Commissioner for Legislative Standards to finally get answers from Premier Furey regarding his conflicts of interest.

“The Premier has yet to show any evidence to back up his claims of ‘my time, my dime’ for his trip to a luxury cabin with a billionaire donor, which preceded the lifting of the province’s wind moratorium by months. The optics of the situation are not good, and the Premier expects us to take him at his word that his obvious conflicts are being managed,” said Petten.

“I am hopeful that through the course of a fair, thorough investigation the Commissioner will be able to answer some of the questions the Premier has been avoiding. This is not about a wind project, it’s not about the energy transition – it’s about a Premier avoiding transparency and accountability to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Petten says the Premier’s repeated refusal of transparency is simply not good enough.

“The Premier doesn’t seem to understand that he is held to a higher standard due to the nature of his position. The Premier seems to believe there are times when he is not the Premier. That is not the case. The Premier is the Premier 24 hours of the day, seven days a week,” said Petten.

“The Premier has failed to meet any standard of transparency and accountability to the people of the province. It’s time to understand what went on here, whether the Premier received any gifts, and whether the interests of the people of our province are protected.”

Letter to CLS

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Contacts:

David Maher

Director of Strategic Communications

(cell) 709-725-0984

DavidMaher@gov.nl.ca