November 30, 1998

Crawford Report: bureaucrat misled legislative assembly

When MLAs were asking questions earlier this year about the GNWT's Lahm Ridge lease, they weren't getting accurate answers from the government.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — In one of the most revealing findings in her public inquiry report tabled last week, Conflict of Interest Commissioner Anne Crawford found that a senior bureaucrat had misled and misinformed cabinet ministers about the true nature of a multimillion-dollar GNWT real estate lease.

Determining the circumstances surrounding a 1997 decision by the GNWT to renew its lease for office space in the Lahm Ridge Tower building in Yellowknife was one of the inquiry's main objectives.

Although the scope of the inquiry prevented her from dwelling on the conduct of departmental staff, Crawford concluded that Ken Lovely, the former deputy minister of public works, was responsible for "perpetuating misinformation about the Lahm Ridge Tower transaction as late as February, 1998."

Lovely has since retired from the civil service.

After reviewing of a series of briefing notes and ministeral answers prepared for Jim Antoine, who became the NWT's public works minister at the time the Lahm Ridge Deal became controversial, Crawford says she detected a "pattern of of misleading information put before the House, to the Minister and to the Premier."

Testimony from Lovely also proved less than reliable in the commission's attempts to determine whether there had been "political direction" from Premier Don Morin on the Lahm Ridge lease, and Crawford notes there are discrepancies "even at the earliest record of what happened."

"From the first moment the recollections and writings of Ken Lovely appear un-characteristically unreliable," Crawford writes.

Throughout his testimony the deputy minister appeared to avoid responsibility for the misinformation fed to Antoine and other ministers surrounding the Lahm Ridge Tower deal, according to the commissioner, who found Lovely's explanations to be "inconsistent and unbelievable" and "inconsistent with his generally high professional reputation."

"It was his job to get the facts right when there are questions about a matter in the House. Particularly with respect to such a high profile matter where his own conduct was under question, the onus on him to provide full and accurate information was considerable."

The commissioner also questioned the reliability of testimony pertaining to the lease-renewal negotiations given by Vince Dixon, North Slave regional superintendent for the Department of Public Works and Services.

Crawford ultimately found no solid proof to show that Morin was personally involved in the decision to extend the Lahm Ridge Tower lease.

But she does list a number of unexplained or unusual occurences surrounding the deal, such as:

• The fact that the long-term policy of the Public Works and Services Department not to enter into long-term leases was so quickly reversed when the people involved were known to the premier;
  
  
• The "uncharacteristic" lack of frankness in briefing notes prepared by or under Ken Lovely's direction;
  
  
• Why the Lahm Ridge lease renewal was kept so secret by all those involved;
  
  
• The failure of anyone in government to demand proof that the lease was a good deal;
  
  
• A statement attributed by two witnesse to Dixon, who negotiated the Lahm Ridge Tower renewal, that the "big guy," or "Donny," (meaning Premier Don Morin), had told him to renew the lease.