P.E.I. Opposition questions finance minister's knowledge of e-gaming file

The Official Opposition tabled emails from P.E.I.'s former finance minister Wes Sheridan in the legislature Tuesday, using them to raise questions about the current finance minister's previous knowledge of the province's e-gaming affair.

Finance Minister Allen Roach was serving as minister of Innovation and Advanced Learning in 2012, when the emails were sent.

• 'Lack of due regard for transparency' in e-gaming file says P.E.I. auditor general
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The first email, from August 2012, listed steps government was taking with regard to a memorandum of understanding signed with the company Trinity Bay Technologies about the development of a financial transaction platform. Roach was listed as a recipient.

The second email, sent a month later, outlined Roach's opinion at the time that government could not discuss a proposal from another company while still under the MOU. The two emails were obtained by the Official Opposition through a Freedom of Information request.

According to P.E.I.'s Auditor General Jane MacAdam, government efforts to set up a financial transaction platform in the province came in the wake of the province's failed attempt to establish itself as a regulator for online gambling. Her report states government signed an MOU with Trinity Bay Technologies, a subsidiary of Capital Markets Technologies (CMT), in July of 2012.

That MOU has been at the heart of two multi-million-dollar lawsuits brought forward by CMT against the P.E.I. government. The first was thrown out of court. The second suit has been filed, and is still before the court.

Minister 'not forthcoming,' says Opposition

The PCs argued the emails run contrary to prior assertions from Roach that he had limited knowledge of the e-gaming affair.

"The Minister of Finance has not been forthcoming with Islanders," accused Steven Myers during question period. "He has not been forthcoming with the auditor and he's not been forthcoming with this House."

The Opposition referred to the transcript from a meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts on March 1, 2017, where Roach said, "I think the first time I heard anything in detail about that MOU, I think was there was an article written in a Toronto newspaper." That was in reference to an article in the Globe and Mail in 2015 about the abandoned e-gaming plan on P.E.I.

Never briefed on e-gaming, minister said

At the same public accounts meeting, Roach told MLAs on the committee he had never been briefed on e-gaming, even though the loan to finance it came from his department. However, he said he had been briefed on the MOU in July of 2012.

In question period Tuesday, Roach didn't dispute the contents of the emails but rather the assertion from the Opposition that they were evidence he had a greater understanding of what was happening with the e-gaming file.

"I did say clearly that I was aware of the MOU that took place in 2012 ... and clearly the first time I heard anything about e-gaming per se, as quote unquote e-gaming, was when I read about it in the paper ... I know the timeline of this and I know exactly where I was and what I said."