Understanding the Case Considering NovAtel LEARNING FROM NOVATEL

THE CASE OF NOVATEL

The Formal and the Substantive CONCLUSIONS

Page 465: Extract from the THE ABRIDGEMENT – ADDENDUM 1 – Updated on September 20, 2000
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This investigation strangely pinpoint my 1991 political exile in United State, the 02 June when I advise the RRQ I will produce the document   identified "The 14 of August 1992";

Septembre 28, 1992 confirm, the Justice minister had requested in investigation;

The February 05, 1993 Gill REMILLARD Answer of the  December 11, 1992 address letter to Mde. Kim Campbell

The resignation of Malroney fallowing the Letters answer replace by Mde. Kim Campbell who has  the appointing as US ambassador Chrétien, Raymond A. J.  

And the French doc., strange relation coexisted also between Jean CHRETIEN and the Mulroney term with Power Corporation and the Canadian and United State Evens, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

After the appointment of the Auditor General, the inquiry itself provided a useful rhetorical means of deflecting political criticism. In reviewing the Alberta Hansard after the NovAtel audit was announced, the same pattern of opposition questions and ministerial reference to the Auditor GeneralÕs ongoing review is repeatedly played out.

For example, in questioning ministerial approval of the Telus prospectus prior to NovAtel being removed from the sale, the Leader of the Official Opposition asked how the Provincial Premier could claim, Òthat there is no ministerial responsibility in this mess when the ministerÕs own signature shows clearly that there was?Ó He met this response:

Frankly, this is exactly the kind of information that is going to be compiled, put together, when the Auditor General completes the task we have set for him. (Alberta Hansard, June 4, 1992, p. 1162)

Though the opposition would argue that the government could not Òhide behind the Auditor GeneralÓ (Alberta Hansard, June 4, 1992, p. 1162), in practice the Auditor GeneralÕs inquiries provided an effective screen. The mere deployment of formal rationality provided a pretext for the evasion of NovAtel as a political event, as ministers deferred comment until the Auditor GeneralÕs report was released, much as they might treat a matter that was before the courts.

While the audit continued, some additional matters did come to light; Opposition researchers reviewed U.S. SEC filings and other documentation, finding, for instance, that provincial funds had been flowed through NovAtel to finance favorable loans to American companies bidding for cellular telephone licenses, as a means to improve NovAtelÕs sale of switchgear (Crockatt, 1992b).

At one point these provincially backed loans approached a billion dollars. In the face of this, Ministers would attempt to legitimize the loans and other activities as being part of an overall pattern of responsible action, in which it was entirely appropriate, as one put it, for Òbusiness people to make (Criminal) business decisionsÓ (Das, 1992).

Though politicians would seek to maintain a division between business and the political, a firewall which was useful in evading calls for ministerial accountability, this divide had been especially permeable in the Alberta governmentÕs mode of operation. In a province in which political patronage played a key role in the extension of political power, government controlled board appointments provided useful roles for leading members of the Progressive Conservative party.

The NovAtel board and its supervising body, the AGT Commission, read, as one commentator put it, like, Òa WhoÕs Who of Provincial ToriesÓ (Cernetig, 1992, p. A1).

The Chair of the AGT Commission, Harry Hobbs, was a former heating and plumbing contractor and Conservative fund-raiser who had served in government and played junior football with former Provincial Premier Peter Lougheed, the elder statesman of the party (Crawford, 1992).

Chip Collins, the former Deputy Provincial Treasurer (a political appointment within the Civil Service), had joined the Provincial Government after working with Lougheed during his brief stint in the private sector, and had maintained close connections to government.

Other board members included:

A former energy minister, Merv Leitch, and a prominent Tory fund-raiser and car dealer (later imprisoned for business fraud), Fred Weatherup (Chalmers, 1992; Lisac, 1995, pp. 37Ð8; McConnell, 1992c)

NovAtelÕs chairman, Neil Webber, a former college administrator, had served as a Cabinet Minister (Crockatt, 1992c); even NovAtelÕs Chief Executive Officer enjoyed Tory connections that had smoothed his path from being a structural engineer and later a travel agent and oil investor, to becoming CEO of an advanced cellular telephone concernÑa business in which he had no background (Lisac, 1995, pp. 37Ð9; Office of the Auditor General of Alberta, 1992).

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