Thread by @RachelNotley

❗️BREAKING❗️

At the same time as taking federal wage subsidy money for the UCP that was meant to support struggling Alberta businesses, Jason Kenney has also funneled $567,860 of Alberta taxpayers’ money into the pockets of his partisan cronies.

THREAD #ableg

Yorkville Strategies is the UCP’s polling company, and Yorkville’s president was Kenney’s “senior strategic advisor” during the 2019 provincial election campaign. 2/ #ableg

Last year, Yorkville was handed $481,560 worth of taxpayers’ money through no-bid contracts, according to recently released sole-source contract disclosures. The gov't has given media Yorkville documents that claim up to 90% support for Kenney’s policies. 3/ #ableg

Vek Labs is a video production company that produced campaign videos for the UCP. Since the election, Vek Labs has gotten $73,500 worth of public money through no-bid contracts to make flattering videos of the premier. 4/ #ableg

In November, a government spokesman all but admitted a corrupt procurement process for the Vek videography contracts, telling media:

“We needed somebody who the premier’s office was comfortable with and so we asked them, which is how we came up with that supplier.” 5/ #ableg

Enterprise Canada was handed $12,800 in no-bid contracts to provide “media training for the Premier's Communications Staff and Minister's Office Press Secretaries.” Enterprise Canada’s Western Canada vice-president was president of the UCP through the 2019 campaign. 6/ #ableg

None of these companies had won any government contracts before the 2019 election. The Kenney government gave itself permission to skip an open tender of the Enterprise Canada & Vek Labs contracts under Clause G of Alberta’s sole-source policy... 7/ #ableg

...“where it can be demonstrated that only one supplier is able to meet the requirements of a procurement.” 8/ #ableg

The Yorkville contract was justified under Clause H: “where an unforeseeable situation of urgency exists and the [services or goods] could not be obtained by means of open procurement procedures” 9/ #ableg

(This is despite the fact the government already entered into several other contracts with a non-partisan research firm, Leger Marketing.) 10/ #ableg

All Alberta companies should have a right to bid for gov't contracts. Alberta taxpayers have a right to expect these companies to compete on price & value, and for public servants to select them based on the strength of their bid, not their coziness with the premier. 11/ #ableg

Jason Kenney shamefully diverted pandemic relief funding from taxpayers to subsidize his political party. Now we see he’s also funneling Alberta taxpayers’ money to his partisan cronies’ companies. 12/ #ableg

While Albertans are losing their jobs and businesses in massive numbers, Jason Kenney’s partisan cronies are laughing all the way to the bank with Alberta taxpayers’ money.

Mr. Kenney is the most corrupt premier in Alberta's history.

/END #ableg