REGINA, Sask. – The opposition New Democrats are continuing to take issue with an exemption granted to Moosomin-Montmartre MLA Kevin Weedmark and his newspaper.
At a news conference at the legislature Friday, NDP Health critic Meara Conway called for Speaker Todd Goudy and members of the Board of Internal Economy to reconsider exemptions granted to the Moosomin World-Spectator, owned by Weedmark, to sell advertising to six government MLAs located in his publication’s readership area.
Conway also took issue with the way in which the exemptions were granted, saying that the Board of Internal Economy was “not made aware and we were not given an opportunity to raise any concerns through the Board of Internal Economy process.”
The NDP has also made public letter sent to Conway by Speaker Goudy in response to her Oct. 14 letter seeking clarification of decisions he made as Chair of the Board of Internal Economy.
In that letter, Speaker Goudy stated his statutory authority to grant such exemptions is found in s. 56 of the Legislative Assembly Act. Goudy also acknowledged that his decision should have been provided to the Board.
”I apologize for this oversight,” Goudy wrote, adding that as soon as this came to light he immediately made the documents available to Board members and they will be officially tabled at the next meeting.
Conway told reporters Friday that it is “now clear that the proper procedure was not followed at the time that these exemptions were issued, which exempt clear rules that would prohibit this from happening.”
”We know that in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years, over $36,000 has now been paid out to Kevin Weedmark’s newspaper for these advertisements. There were some questions that I put to the Speaker that have not been answered yet.”
She said one question is how this exemption is being monitored. She said the conditions permit Weedmark to advertise in the paper, but he cannot be reimbursed through public funds for his own advertisement. “I'm wondering if anyone has been monitoring whether he's been paying commercial value for these advertisements, because otherwise there would just be a bunch of free advertising for him.”
Conway also said the Speaker “did not address the request that I made in the letter that this exemption be reconsidered, given what we now know… The World-Spectator bankrolled Kevin Weedmark’s election campaign in a pretty significant way, including lending him a campaign vehicle. We now know that there's been a formal complaint made by media about the special access that was given, by government, to the World-Spectator. We now know that journalists working at that paper volunteered on Kevin Weedmark’s election campaign. We now know that newspaper staff have been accompanying Mr. Weedmark’s during his official MLA duties, taking photos of him, some of which appear in the paper, some of which only appear on Mr. Weedmark’s social media sites, so there is a significant amount of concern.”
Conway said this “raises serious questions about where Mr. Weedmark’s private business interests end and where his public duties begin. It was on that basis that I asked the Speaker to halt this practice until we get some clear answers from the Conflict of Interest Commissioner. My argument is that we should resort back to the rules that are in place, because surely they exist for a reason.”
Sask Today has requested a response from the government to the NDP news conference and this story will be updated when that is provided. Sask Today has also again put in a request to the government to provide a media availability with Weedmark, as have a number of other Saskatchewan media outlets.
