Alberta premier's husband invited to passenger rail meetings as province mulls expansion plan
CBC
As Alberta's transportation minister prepares to unveil a passenger rail strategy this summer, freedom of information documents obtained by CBC News show that Premier Danielle Smith's husband, David Moretta, was invited to three meetings in 2023 about passenger rail and its potential expansion in the province.
Some academics and a former cabinet minister say the invitations to Moretta alongside senior government officials, railway company representatives and lobbyists raise questions about preferential access to people in power and information about government decisions — though one says it does not violate Alberta's conflict of interest rules for a spouse to attend out of interest.
Prompted by Smith's interest in rail, the Alberta government is awaiting a consultant's 15-year master plan for introducing passenger trains across the province.
Although the plan has not yet been finalized, government officials told attendees of three telephone town halls in late June that building high-speed rail between Edmonton and Calgary, and a high-speed connection between Calgary and Banff will be priorities in a 15-year passenger rail plan.
Transportation officials said the projects will cost the government tens of billions of dollars.
The longer-term vision also includes commuter rail from Calgary to some bedroom communities and from Edmonton to its airport, along with regional passenger rail to Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, and other mid-size cities.
Two of the rail-related meetings Moretta was invited to included information that, if released, could present a financial risk to the province or reveal confidential advice and deliberations by government, according to redactions on the documents released to CBC.
"What's he doing there?" said University of Alberta law professor Cameron Hutchison of the invitations.
Hutchison, who has taught classes on conflict of interest, and has authored columns on the limits of Alberta's conflict of interest law and whistleblower protections, said it is unusual for a politician's spouse to be invited to a meeting about government business as a passive observer.
"He's not part of the government, is not part of any … formal consultation agreement with the government. I just don't see the role being played here."
Smith's chief of staff, Sam Blackett, said in May the premier invited Moretta to attend "a few meetings" as a person with "subject matter knowledge" about the public debate on high-speed passenger rail in Alberta.
"Premier Danielle Smith and her husband share a long-standing enthusiasm for rail as an efficient form of transportation for goods and people," Blackett said in a May statement after former UCP cabinet minister Peter Guthrie raised concerns in the legislature about Moretta being invited to one of the meetings.
"They often discuss different ways expanded passenger rail services could benefit the province."
Blackett would not confirm which of the meetings, if any, Moretta attended.
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