Manitoba government asks auditor general to review daycare project connected to PC campaign director's company
CBC
The province has asked Manitoba's auditor general to review a $100-million daycare construction project initiated by the previous Progressive Conservative government in partnership with a company which paid millions of dollars to a separate company co-owned by the director of the PCs' 2023 re-election campaign.
In 2022, the province announced a $70-million "partnership" which included John Q Public Inc., a company that is owned by 12 rural municipalities, which are listed as shareholders.
'The total project managed by John Q was valued at almost $100 million and may not have followed normal provincial or municipal procurement practices," says an April 16 letter from Brian O'Leary, deputy minister of education and early learning, to the auditor general, which was tabled during question period Thursday.
John Q entered into a contract with Boom Done Next, a management consulting company, according to Colleen Sklar, CEO of John Q Public Inc.
Boom Done Next is owned by Joe Leuzzi and Marni Larkin, the PCs' campaign manager in 2023.
Twenty-two daycares were built. All but one have since opened according to John Q.
On Thursday, Manitoba's Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning, Tracy Schmidt, stood up in the Legislature and said former premier Heather Stefanson and former education minister Wayne Ewasko "awarded" child-care project deals to Boom Done Next, which overlapped with the time Larkin was running the PC Party campaign.
Schmidt said in question period Larkin's company received $2.8 million from taxpayers.
"John Q is an umbrella organization that awarded many contracts to many subcontractors. Boom Done Next is one of those subcontractors and Marni Larkin is listed as the owner and director of Boom Done Next," said Schmidt outside the legislative chamber.
It is not clear why the minister said the money paid to Boom Done Next was "awarded" by the former premier and education minister, when they were contracted by John Q.
CBC News had been asking questions about the daycare project and the involvement of Boom Done Next for more than a week. The province has not yet answered a number of those questions.
When CBC News interviewed Schmidt on April 10, the Minister didn't appear to know much about the daycare project. At the time, she said she assumed the contract to John Q was tendered or awarded through a request for proposal, or RFP.
The province has not confirmed if either a tender or RFP happened.
In the April 10 interview with CBC News, Schmidt was asked about details of the daycare project and said "I'm not here to question the decisions made by other governments."
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