Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange is shown speaking during a news conference on Aug. 4, 2020. (Gov't. of Alberta live stream)

By Josh Hall

uncovered emails indicate otherwise

Education ministry maintains mask contracts done without political interference

Jan 12, 2021 | 5:14 PM

Despite newly obtained documents showing otherwise, Alberta’s Ministry of Education continues to deny any ethical wrongdoing related to the procurement of face coverings for the province’s students last summer.

The “faux controversy,” as Education Minister Adriana LaGrange called it last August, is back in the spotlight this week after ‘The Breakdown,’ a web series focusing on Alberta politics, shared the results of a Freedom of Information request to the province’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

The Breakdown shared those results as well as a 20-minute YouTube video dissecting various emails sent between government staffers in various ministries and the Provincial Operations Centre (POC).

In August, rdnewsNOW published a story about a split contract for mask procurement which saw 90 per cent of the deal go to Old Navy and 10 per cent to Red Deer-based IFR Workwear. The total number of masks the province was seeking was around 1.6-1.7 million.

Located in LaGrange’s home constituency of Red Deer-North, IFR is owned by Reg and Lyn Radford, with the former listed as having donated $2,000 to LaGrange’s 2019 election campaign.

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LAGRANGE WRITES ETHICS COMMISSIONER

LaGrange preemptively submitted a letter to the Alberta Ethics Commissioner on Aug. 10 stating that everything regarding the IFR contract was on the up and up.

“I would like to assure you that neither myself nor my political staff had any role in the selection of vendors for these masks,” LaGrange wrote. “Due to urgent time constraints, my department enlisted the Provincial Operations Centre to procure the masks in question. It’s my understanding that the POC directly contacted vendors which it believed capable of meeting the technical requirements.”

This means the Alberta Government didn’t utilize its typical Request for Proposal (RFP) process because of time constraints.

Further muddying the optics was the fact Premier Jason Kenney, LaGrange and Red Deer-South MLA Jason Stephan had recently toured IFR Workwear in July.

In an additional statement to rdnewsNOW at the time, Municipal Affairs Press Secretary Timothy Gerwing stated, “The fact that a company might be located in any given riding is irrelevant. Frankly, it’s disappointing that some are even suggesting that, unless they’re suggesting an Alberta employer should have been eliminated from contention because it happens to be located in a given riding.”

The FOI results from The Breakdown suggest something is amiss with the government’s claims.

IFR WORKWEAR SUGGESTED BY EDUCATION MINISTRY STAFFER

On July 29, about two weeks prior to LaGrange’s letter to the Ethics Commissioner, procurement staff compiled a list of four potential mask vendors – Bob Dale Gloves, Ennis Fabrics and Unbelts, all based out of Edmonton, and Old Navy.

Later that day, high-level education ministry staffer Linda Antunes inquired with POC staffer Erica Woolf if she had, “any information on this company,” with the subject line ‘IFR Masks.’ Woolf replied that the procurement team did not have any records or previous communications with IFR.

(Shared with rdnewsNOW by ‘The Breakdown’)

(Shared with rdnewsNOW by ‘The Breakdown’)

By July 31, IFR’s pros and cons were being weighed along with the previously communicated options. POC staff member Amanda Dalton concludes by recommending IFR and Old Navy based on fit, quality and delivery.

Come August 4, Dalton emailed Antunes and another education ministry staff member to say Old Navy had confirmed they could deliver on 1.6 million masks by Aug. 24, but the contract had to be signed that day.

(Shared with rdnewsNOW by ‘The Breakdown’)

Less than a half hour later, Antunes responds, saying, “We need to split some of the order with IFR (support local as well). Can you work out the numbers?”

(Shared with rdnewsNOW by ‘The Breakdown’)

A subsequent email from Antunes asks Woolf if IFR has an Indigenous component to their manufacturing, which ‘IFR’ has stated they do. This criterion is sometimes used in selection of contracts.

The FOI results also show the price-per-mask from IFR was $4.24 for the 150,000 masks in question, as opposed to $2.30 through Old Navy. The contract with IFR Workwear came in at $636,000.

EDUCATION MINISTRY RESPONDS

In a statement to rdnewsNOW on Jan. 11, Education Ministry Press Secretary Justin Marshall said, “Neither Minister LaGrange or any of her political staff had a hand in awarding the school mask procurement contracts, nor did we direct the bureaucracy in Alberta Education to push for IFR WorkWear Inc.”

“Minister LaGrange only learned of the winning vendors the day details were released to media,” he adds.

“Choices were made by non-partisan bureaucrats at the Provincial Operations Centre (under Municipal Affairs), who evaluated whether companies could meet both quality requirements and the demands of a large order in a very short amount of time.”

Marshall says the government is always happy when an Alberta company can meet the technical, volume and cost requirements of any procurement.

“In no way did anyone political direct or intervene in awarding this contract.”