Premier Danielle Smith says the buck stops with her caucus when it comes to questions over why Smith didn’t know sooner about a massive breach of private information on Albertans.
Smith’s United Conservative caucus has previously said one of their staffers was at an April 16 meeting in which private information on Albertans was shown on an app.
Smith confirmed Monday the caucus staffer then briefed Tricia Velthuizen, the executive director of caucus, on the meeting but that Velthuizen did not pass any information on to Smith's office.
"(Velthuizen) said there was nothing that was presented that was out of the ordinary that would have required her to report up," Smith said. "No one was saying that this list was illegal -- that was not on anybody's radar."
The UCP caucus is made up of all the elected party members in the legislature. Smith said her caucus staff is managed separately from her office, adding that chief government whip Justin Wright oversees caucus staff, and didn't flag anything to cabinet.
Rakhi Pancholi, deputy leader of the Opposition NDP, told reporters Smith was making a staffer take the fall for something that ultimately falls to her.
"The buck stops with the premier," Pancholi said.
"It would be laughable if it didn't speak to the culture that this premier has instilled in her caucus and the lack of responsibility and accountability.”
The April 16 meeting is a key date in what has become a three-headed investigation into the breach of names and home addresses of nearly three million Alberta voters.
Elections Alberta, the provincial privacy commissioner and the RCMP are each investigating.
The NDP said last week it knew about the April 16 meeting and informed the RCMP about it a day later, on April 17.
The issue, though, did not become public for two weeks after that when, on April 30, Elections Alberta went to court to shut down the public-facing app containing the private information.
The controversy has prompted Smith to say they may make changes to rules to safeguard voter information, but added that will come after the investigations run their course.
Later Monday, Smith's office, when asked if there will be any changes or consequences for caucus staff, deferred the issue to caucus spokesperson Shanna Schulhauser.
Schulhauser declined to comment, citing the fact it concerns internal issues and personnel, but reiterated, "Staff observing the meeting had no reason to believe the website in question was unlawful."
In recent days, Smith’s government has tried to get the Speaker of the legislature to formally reprimand the NDP for not telling her government sooner about the breach.
Last week, government house leader Joseph Schow argued NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi's decision to not divulge put public officials at risk. Nenshi said he acted responsibly and didn't trust Smith on the issue given her prior ties to David Parker, the founder of the group tied to the app.
On Monday, Speaker Ric McIver said there is no evidence that members of the legislature had their rights compromised or parliamentary duties interfered with.
The app was organized by the Centurion Project, a group seeking support for separatism ahead of a fall referendum.
Lawyers for Elections Alberta have said they traced the database back to an official voter list legally provided to the pro-independence Republican Party of Alberta. How the list changed hands is under investigation.
Also Monday, chief electoral officer Gordon McClure told reporters he thinks there needs to be stronger rules in place guarding the voter list and until that happens, the list shouldn't be distributed to any political party.
"Our technology experts are monitoring the dark web (to) determine how far the information has gone at this time,” McClure said.
He couldn't provide a timeline for his investigation, but said it's "evolving very quickly."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
