Firm led by former Danielle Smith campaign manager wins $1.5M government contract

The Alberta government has awarded a $1.5-million contract to a marketing agency where Premier Danielle Smith's former leadership campaign manager is part-owner and executive producer, government records show.

The contract was awarded to the Edmonton-based Nordic Media. The company beat out five other public relations firms, according to a government spokesperson.

Nordic Media's executive producer is Matthew Altheim, campaign manager for Smith when she sought the leadership of the United Conservative Party. He is also described as part-owner of Nordic Media on its website.

The news follows earlier decisions to award two sole-source contracts to Nordic Media. 

Sole-source contracts involve services purchased by Alberta government departments that don't go out for bids. They're permitted under specific circumstances.

CBC News previously reported on a contract, which ran from Nov. 1, 2022, to Jan. 31, awarded to Nordic Media to provide digital media strategic planning and asset development. CBC News also previously reported that Altheim's firm had been hired to shape social media memes for Smith.

The news of a second sole-source contract and the new, $1.5-million competitive-bid contract was first reported Wednesday by independent journalist Jeremy Appel.

$1.5M new contract

The new $1.5-million contract is listed on the government's Alberta Purchasing Connection website, which lists all public procurement opportunities and results.

The contract is listed as having been awarded to Nordic Filmworks Limited, operating as Nordic Media, as of July 10.

It has a maximum value of $1.5 million over five years, wrote David Sands, director of communications in the government's communications and public engagement department, in an email.

"Only three years are actually committed, and the contract can be cancelled at any time. Payment is based on invoiced services provided, so the maximum value of the contract is not guaranteed to the vendor," he said.

In February, Sands wrote in a statement that an open request for proposals for a permanent vendor was being reviewed and would be posted in March.

The $1.5-million contract that Nordic ultimately won was posted in March.

CBC News spoke briefly to Altheim by phone but lost the connection. In response to a text, Altheim said he could not talk because he was driving. He did not respond to subsequent requests for comment by publication time.

Two sole-source contracts

The government is required to divulge the criteria behind awarding sole-source contracts in its disclosure tables.

The database is updated quarterly and information on contracts for services of $10,000 or more are listed.

Disclosures might involve those contracts that could only be satisfied by suppliers with specific qualifications or those in which the procurement process might reveal confidential information.

In the case of the first sole-source contract, the situation cited was "where an unforeseeable situation of urgency exists and the services, or the goods or services in respect of construction, could not be obtained by means of open procurement procedures."

The second sole-source contract for $70,000 was awarded on Feb. 3 and ran until March 1. 

In June, Nordic Media posted on its blog that it had been recently tasked with working alongside the provincial government for a new venture called "Help is on the Way," tied to government efforts to reform Alberta Health Services.

"With such an important story to share, the Government of Alberta approached Nordic Media to design a brand for the initiative," the blog states.

The company went on to select brand colours that were a higher-saturated version of Smith's own brand colours — gold and navy blue — and chose imagery that emphasized the diversity of individuals who serve and benefit the health-care system, among other design choices, the blog states.

The second sole-source contract is listed with a "z" in the data table, meaning the contract was sole-sourced outside of the listed potential situations.

It was awarded because it made fiscal sense for the government to continue working with Nordic Media rather than with another firm on a short term-basis while working to complete the open procurement process, Sands wrote in an email.

Later, when it came to the $1.5-million, competitive-bid contract, it emerged out of a tender issued by the department for similar work over the next three years, Sands wrote.

"Nordic Media won that competition over five other bidders in a open, transparent and fair process. All RFPs have a regimented scoring system with specific rules for rating proposals, as outlined in the [government procurement accountability framework]," he said.