Former Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers say their government tried to push through a controversial silica sand mining project in Manitoba just days before the new NDP government was officially sworn in.
Premier Wab Kinew claims the former Progressive Conservative government tried to approve an Alberta mining company's proposal to drill for sand in southeastern Manitoba days after the Tories lost the provincial election in October.
Alberta-based Sio Silica wants to set up a mining operation in southeastern Manitoba. The process would extract 1.36 million tonnes of silica sand in an area near Vivian by drilling wells.
According to statements acquired by CTV, Former Kirkfield Park MLA Klein, who served as environment and climate minister in the former PC government, said Jeff Wharton – then minister of economic development, investment, and trade, called him in mid-October in an attempt to push through licensing to approve this operation coming into Manitoba.
These calls were made in defiance of Mantoba's caretaker convention, in which the government is supposed to refrain from making major decisions during an election, – a time when they can't be held accountable in the legislature.
The decision now falls to the NDP to determine the fate of this silica mining operation in the province.
