No rules broken in hiring of public inquiry head: ethics commissioner

EDMONTON – Alberta’s ethics commissioner says Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer did not break ethics rules when he hired Steve Allan to run the public inquiry into who funds oil protesters.

Marguerite Trussler says Allan was on balance a good choice in a small pool of qualified candidates.

And she notes that while Allan and Schweitzer knew each other in passing, and Allan had contributed to Schweitzer’s political campaigns, he gave money to other parties as well.

Allan was hired a year ago to head up the public inquiry to fulfil an election promise of Premier Jason Kenney.