EDMONTON – The husband of a former Alberta premier is questioning why Premier Danielle Smith invited her husband to sit in on government meetings.
Lou Arab, husband to former premier Rachel Notley, in a social media post took issue with Smith’s recent comments saying there is nothing wrong with her husband David Moretta sitting in on meetings discussing government rail projects.
“Danielle Smith is full of it,” wrote Arab, a longtime senior communications official with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
“I was not actually allowed to lobby any minister on any subject whatsoever.”
The Tyee, an online news outlet, first reported last summer that Moretta was invited to attend a 2023 government meeting, but this week the CBC reported that Moretta was invited to two additional rail-related meetings later that fall, including a meeting about a proposed multibillion-dollar rail project that the proponents were to attend.
The project, an unsolicited proposal submitted to government in 2021 by consortium Liricon-Plenary, would see a passenger rail service connecting Calgary to Banff.
Smith and her office have defended her choice to include Moretta in the meetings, saying his past career in media and general interest in rail gives him subject matter expertise and valuable knowledge to share.
“My husband’s an adviser to me, and that’s allowed because he’s married to me,” Smith said at an unrelated press conference in June. “I can ask for his advice on anything I choose.”
At the same press conference, Smith credited Moretta for playing a role in the province deciding to launch a new feasibility study for passenger rail across the province as well as undertaking a new rail master plan expected to be finished sometime this year.
“I asked for his advice as we had a multitude of different projects coming forward,” Smith said at the press conference. “What we learned was that if any one of these projects went ahead without integrating, it might preclude the other ones from going ahead.”
Arab, in his social media post, said that when Notley was premier he was barred from offering his own subject matter expertise to the government his wife led.
“When Rachel was premier, despite my having two decades of professional experience in labour relations, I was not allowed within 10 light years of setting labour policy,” Arab said. “That wasn’t just good ethics, that was the law.”
In a statement Tuesday, Smith’s press secretary said Arab was rightfully separated from decision-making considering Arab’s employer had “direct and indirect ties” to government operations.
“Unlike Mr. Arab’s example, Mr. Moretta’s employment is in no way related to this subject matter,” Sam Blackett said.
“He has never lobbied on behalf of any entity (rail related or otherwise) at any time and has absolutely no connection to any lobbying firm.
“Any claim or insinuation to the contrary is defamatory.”
Opposition NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir said in an interview Tuesday that regardless of expertise, experience or lobbiest status the premier’s husband shouldn’t be anywhere close to government.
“This shouldn’t be difficult,” Sabir said, adding that if Smith needed advice on rail projects she could’ve hired someone.
“You might be able to find a better adviser who can advise you on these projects without any conflict.”
Arab, who didn’t respond to an interview request Tuesday, has raised concerns about Moretta’s access to government before, as has Smith’s former United Conservative caucus member and infrastructure minister Peter Guthrie.
Guthrie drew the ire of Smith and other members of her front bench in a heated question period exchange in May when he asked the premier about the appropriateness of Moretta’s meeting attendance and his engagement with government officials.
Guthrie, who asked if Moretta’s “efforts” crossed a line and gave him “undue influence over government policy and spending,” also told the assembly that as minister he had declined a meeting he was invited to attend that would’ve involved Moretta.
“I’ve been tired of the rumours and innuendo and slander against my family that I have been hearing about for months,” Smith said in response to Guthrie’s questions.
“He has never ever been registered as a lobbyist because he has never ever lobbied any government, including ours, and I would ask for the innuendo and the slander to stop.”
In another social media post commenting on the exchange, Arab said he “couldn’t so much as write a letter to a minister asking for a meeting.”
“I don’t know if the rules have changed since then, but there is no way in hell I’d have been able to ask ministers to meet with the local Girl Guide troop let alone a group of businessmen trying to build a railroad.”
