N.B. officials attended NCAA games courtesy of firm awarded public grant money

Civil servants with the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture attended basketball games in Arizona in April, using tickets supplied by a company that has received grant money from the department, CBC News has learned.

Four Tourism Department staff members, including deputy minister Yennah Hurley, travelled to Phoenix for five days to attend events around the Final Four of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament.

During that trip, according to information pieced together by CBC News, the group accepted tickets worth hundreds of dollars to attend basketball games, including the national championship game that concludes "March Madness." 

According to Bruce Macfarlane, New Brunswick's acting director of media relations, the trip to Phoenix was made in support of a basketball event the company On Ice Entertainment held in Moncton last year and is trying to stage again this fall.

The event, called Atlantic Slam, involves recruiting four of the 362 Division 1 U.S. college men's basketball teams to travel to Moncton to play against one another in a weekend mini tournament.

Last year, teams from Yale University, Colgate University, Weber State University and Gardner-Webb University participated.

Macfarlane said tourism officials, as well as at least two officials from the City of Moncton, attended an NCAA trade show held in the Phoenix area during the basketball finals to promote Atlantic Slam and help On Ice Entertainment find teams for this year's Moncton event.

"The Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture was invited by the On Ice Entertainment to attend the National Basketball Association Conference and Final 4 Meetings/Events," wrote Macfarlane.

During the trip, Macfarlane said, the provincial delegation "met with NCAA officials, coaches and players" with a goal "to ensure that top teams are being secured for the 2024 NCAA Atlantic Slam event."

The Final Four is a major American sporting spectacle staged annually by the NCAA. It has television ratings similar to baseball's World Series and begins with 68 college men's basketball teams playing single elimination games in March and April until four teams are left.

Those four teams play off in a host city to determine a national collegiate men's basketball champion during a long weekend that includes two semifinal games and the championship game.

Records show Hurley's personal bill for flights, accommodations, meals and other expenses to attend the event in Phoenix totalled $5,188. 

However, there were no expense receipts submitted for attending basketball games. 

Macfarlane said tourism officials did attend games while in Phoenix but with tickets that were supplied by On Ice Entertainment. He said they were given to the Moncton city officials, who then distributed them to the New Brunswick delegation.

"On Ice Entertainment provided entry to all associated activities, at the National Association of Basketball Coaches convention, trade show and its associated activities including the Final Four, for the department to learn how to improve the Moncton event," wrote Macfarlane.

Conflict of interest rules

The province has not supplied information about the value of tickets received. But according to the website TicketIQ, the cheapest price available on "secondary" reselling markets to attend the two semifinal games held on Saturday, April 5, was $501 US.

Listed prices for tickets to the championship game between the University of Connecticut and Purdue University held on Monday, April 7, started at $221 US on secondary markets, according to TicketIQ.

That is a potential issue, given New Brunswick conflict of interest rules.

Those rules discourage civil servants from accepting a "reward, gift or favour of any kind" from parties that deal with the province and that "could reasonably be deemed to influence the employees in the performance of their duties."

On Ice Entertainment has a financial relationship with the province, with the Tourism Department approving a $50,000 grant for the company to help it stage Atlantic Slam this year.

Charles Murray, who handles conflict of interest issues for MLAs as New Brunswick's integrity commissioner, said by legislation, any gift to an elected official of more than $250 has to be reviewed by his office.

Rules are not that explicit for civil servants and are not subject to supervision by Murray. However, he said in his view, if civil servants feel there is a public benefit to be gained from attending an event, like a basketball game, they should be paying for tickets themselves and billing the government for the expense.

No comment from company's owner

"If there is some event we need them to attend in order to inform themselves to make a proper decision, we must correspondingly accept that we collectively need to pay for it," Murray wrote in an email, in response to questions from CBC News.

"We should not fall into the error of thinking that if a private interest offers to step in and pay the costs, they have 'saved the public a cost.' The risk is that we are allowing the decision-maker's interest to be diverted in part from the public interest."

On Ice Entertainment is run by Canadian sports entrepreneur John Graham. He did not respond to requests for information about this story or about apparent planning problems with this year's Atlantic Slam.

As of last week, no U.S. college basketball teams had yet been announced as coming to Moncton, despite New Brunswick tourism officials travelling to Arizona to ensure top teams were recruited.

Atlantic Slam is scheduled to begin on Nov. 15. 

A similar event being held in Lethbridge, Alta., in late November by On Ice Entertainment, called Western Slam, announced its four U.S. college teams in June.

Macfarlane offered no immediate explanation of how civil servants accepting tickets to a major sporting event from a company that receives grant money from the province might be allowed under New Brunswick's conflict of interest rules.

He also had no information about whether the Arizona trip played a role in a sudden change in leadership responsibilities at the Department of Tourism last month.

On Sept. 25, a memo sent on behalf of Cheryl Hansen, New Brunswick's top civil servant, notified Tourism Department staff that "effective immediately," Dan Mills, the deputy minister for post-secondary education, training and labour, would be assuming responsibility for "all Tourism, Heritage and Culture files."

"I know that Mr. Mills will have your usual support and collaboration as he takes on these additional duties," read the memo, which gave no reason for the change.

Mills was assigned to take over from Hurley, who has been the deputy minister of the Tourism Department since 2020.

Macfarlane said Hurley still holds that job, although Mills is now performing its functions.

"Yennah Hurley is the deputy minister of tourism, heritage and culture. Dan Mills is interim deputy minister of tourism heritage and culture," he wrote.

Change in leadership

Hurley did not respond to messages seeking information on what has happened at the department, and Macfarlane could not say whether the shift in leadership responsibilities was initiated by Hurley for personal reasons or imposed by the government for other reasons.

"We do not comment on personnel," wrote Macfarlane in response to inquiries about that issue.

Hurley is a unique figure in the New Brunswick civil service, with ties to Blaine Higgs.

She is a former small adventure business operator and travel blogger who was hired by Higgs in 2019 as a personal adviser. She was given what began as a two-year consulting contract to evaluate work in the Tourism Department and report directly to the premier's office

A year later, half way through that contract, she was named the department's deputy minister.

Earlier this year, Hurley was involved in a separate travel controversy when it was revealed she spent $12,328 on an eight-day trip to London and Paris in 2023 that included visits to Versailles, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and a ride on the London Eye.

Opposition Liberals criticized the trip in the legislature when it became public this spring, and Higgs said they were right to be concerned,

"Trips need to be value-added," Higgs said in the legislature about the European trip that also included Tourism Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace.

"I'm asking questions too. We will be evaluating our current practices and the rules that govern them."