(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Troy Gillard

VACATION FALLOUT

Stephan resigns from province’s Treasury Board

Jan 4, 2021 | 12:55 PM

Jason Stephan’s trip to the United States has cost him his place on the province’s Treasury Board.

Premier Jason Kenney announced in a Facebook post on Monday that he has accepted Stephan’s resignation from the board.

Stephan, the UCP MLA for Red Deer-South, travelled to Arizona on Dec. 31 despite provincial and federal guidelines in place since March advising against non-essential travel out of the country.

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Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard, who admitted to taking a family vacation last month to Hawaii, submitted her resignation from cabinet on Monday.

Kenney says he asked for and accepted the resignation of his Chief of Staff, Jamie Huckabay, who travelled to the United Kingdom.

The premier says he also accepted the resignation of MLA Jeremy Nixon as Parliamentary Secretary for Civil Society, and that MLAs Tanya Fir, Pat Rehn, and Tany Yao have lost their Legislature committee responsibilities. Each of them was confirmed to have travelled out of country last month.

Transportation Minister Ric McIver will serve as interim Minister of Municipal Affairs, and Principal Secretary Larry Kaumeyer will serve as Kenney’s interim Chief of Staff.

“Last Friday, I took responsibility for not having been clear enough with members of the government caucus and others in positions of leadership that they should not travel abroad. Over the weekend, I have listened to Albertans who are sending a clear message that they want real consequences for these actions,” Kenney said in his statement. “By travelling abroad over the holidays, these individuals demonstrated extremely poor judgment.”

“Albertans are outraged. They are outraged at the arrogance, entitlement, and dishonesty of United Conservative Party MLAs, and they are outraged that Premier Jason Kenney approved this despicable behaviour and tried to weasel out of responsibility on some small-print technicality,” NDP Deputy Leader Sarah Hoffman said Monday.

“Jason Kenney still owes Albertans the complete truth about how many of his MLAs enjoyed international vacations while others made painful sacrifices during a global public health emergency.”

Stephan issued a statement Tuesday morning apologizing for his actions, saying he “exercised poor judgement” when he travelled to Arizona on Dec. 31.

“This includes a realization that I failed to see my travelling to Arizona could be hurtful to the very individuals and families I have been seeking to serve, and who have made such huge sacrifices, including with the additional restrictions imposed over the Christmas holidays,” Stephan said. “To those individuals and families, I am very sorry and apologize for my poor judgement.”