Proving instantaneously that journalists can make damn fine bloggers

By Paul MacNeill, Paul MacNeill’s Blog

Well, Myrtle Jenkins-Smith probably didn’t convince many of her corporate purity after a CBC Radio interview in which she weakly tried to explain away potential conflict of interest in her new role as CEO of Tourism Charlottetown.

Jenkins-Smith has a varied business portfolio. She owns a conference and event management company. It is best known for losing a tonne of taxpayers’ money on the failed Alanis Morissette concert. She and her business partner Mark Carr-Rollit are folding that company to become salaried employees of Tourism Charlottetown.

She co-owns two businesses with Stephen Dunne. His primary business is operation of a consulting firm with very close ties to the Ghiz administration.

One Dunne/Jenkins-Smith enterprise is a federally registered numbered company. The other, Make-a-Reservation Inc, is a start-up software company providing e-commerce solutions. It does not have a listed phone number. It received four units under the controversial immigrant investor program, which translates into a $200,000 direct investment.

When pushed during her CBC interview, Jenkins-Smith said she will not sell her interest in Make-A-Reservation, contending there is no real or perceived conflict.

That is a very debatable contention considering it is a company supposedly offering solutions primarily to the tourism/hospitality industry.

Myrtle Jenkins-Smith is also in business with noted Charlottetown businessman and Liberal supporter Kevin Murphy. It is this connection that raised many eyebrows. Kevin Murphy is a board member of Tourism Charlottetown. The two actually own the building that Charlottetown Tourism rents office space from. It is a classic conflict of interest, yet you never heard Jenkins-Smith admit that in her interview. It was left to Murphy to say that she would be selling her half of the business.

He didn’t say how the Tourism Charlottetown board should now deal with the fact that it is still renting office space from a board member. Doesn’t that smack of a conflict too?

There in lies the problem with Charlottetown. It is the ultimate back-scratching society. Doesn’t matter how much money is wasted or lost on failed projects.

Friends help friends.

Business connections intertwine.

No one is ever held accountable.

All of which would be fine if no taxpayers’ money is involved. But there is. Lots. In the case of Tourism Charlottetown hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jenkins-Smith says she was not paid to shut her company down. We don’t know if she will be paid a commission to bring former clients into the Tourism Charlottetown fold.

Makes you wonder if a business is not worth selling, what makes Tourism Charlottetown believe the principals are the right people to lead the beleaguered organization into the future.

What is clearly needed is a new governance model. Tourism in Charlottetown, and by extension tourism in all of PEI, is on a steady downward trend because too often pet projects are put ahead of what’s in the best interest of the industry as a whole. Tourism Charlottetown needs to be redefined with clear lines established to eliminate old school back-scratching.

Taxpayers can no longer afford to subsidize the failed nepotism model of the past.