“I think you have to be pretty naïve that any politician in any party is going to act inappropriately because somebody had a piddly little fundraiser for them where the maximum any individual could give was $1,000,” said Summa Strategies vice-president Tim Powers, a Conservative pundit. “You can’t even buy a good big screen TV for $1,000 so how are you going to buy a politician? I mean, I think we’re unfair to politicians sometimes when we talk about these things and think they’re cheaper than a big screen TV.”
Conservative MP Paul Calandra (Oak Ridges-Markham, Ont.), Parliamentary secretary to the Canadian Heritage Minister, attended a fundraising event at the home of WorldBand Media’s president Prabha Selvadurai’s sister Kirupalini Kirupakaran. The event raised $22,000 for Mr. Calandra’s riding association.
WorldBand Media is currently vying for a broadcast license from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to air a new radio station in Toronto on the 88.1 FM dial.
WorldBand Media hired Hill and Knowlton to lobby the department of Canadian Heritage, the CRTC and Members of Parliament on broadcasting issues for a section 22 license under the Broadcasting Act. There are three people registered to work on the file, former Liberal Cabinet minister Don Boudria, H&K’s senior vice-president and national service leader public affairs Elizabeth Roscoe, and former Conservative staffer Ashley Brambles.
Ms. Roscoe met with Conservative MP Costas Menegakis (Richmond Hill, Ont.) on June 11, and Ms. Brambles met with Toronto-area Conservative MPs Chungsen Leung (Willowdale, Ont.), Bal Gosal (Bramalea-Gore-Malton, Ont.), Bob Dechert (Mississauga-Erindale, Ont.), Corneliu Chisu (Pickering-Scarborough East, Ont.), Mr. Menegakis, Eve Adams (Mississauga-Brampton South, Ont.), Joe Daniel (Don Valley East, Ont.), Parm Gill (Brampton-Springdale, Ont.), Stella Ambler (Mississagua South, Ont.) and Ted Opitz (Etobicoke Centre, Ont.) on March 23, according to monthly communications reports filed with the lobbying commissioner.
At the fundraiser, five people the CRTC has listed as WorldBand investors made donations totaling $5,000. Mr. Calandra told The Globe and Mail last week that he would return those donations.
“One person who had spread the word about the fundraiser did not understand the conflict that he might have been putting us or himself in by inviting these people,” Mr. Calandra told The Globe and Mail, noting that the licence was not discussed at the fundraiser. “It was one person who was responsible for these five potential conflicts, but it wasn’t Prabha in any shape or form. He knew the rules and he was bang on.”
Mr. Calandra’s riding association also accepted a $500 donation from Stan Antony in February at a different fundraiser. Mr. Antony leads one of the more than 20 companies competing to win the licence, which the CRTC has yet to announce. In a statement, Mr. Antony said that the licence was also not discussed at the fundraiser. The Globe and Mail further reported on July 26 that Mr. Antony was asked to attend and contribute to Mr. Calandra’s riding association fundraiser.
Public Affairs Association of Canada president John Capobianco, a lobbyist at Fleishman-Hillard said it’s “ridiculous” to think that politicians can be influenced to make a decision in a certain way simply by attending a fundraiser.
“It’s ridiculous to think that going to a fundraiser or someone giving money to a political person which is legal and, quite frankly, part of the political process in any way, is influential to that politician, and I think that politicians are always on guard with this kind of stuff. If things are done wrong, they’ll always fix it,” he said. “Nothing was ever done maliciously, but I think that this notion that politicians can be bought by a ticket to an event or going to a fundraiser where the money goes to the riding association to help with the person’s re-election is ever going to be influential, I think is ridiculous.”
One lobbyist, who did not want to be named, said aside from the optics of taking money from lobbyists who are lobbying you, this now very public situation could be detrimental to the parties involved.
“They’re trying to get a radio station licence. If they get it, everybody’s going to say, ‘That’s why they got it.’ And the government’s going to say, ‘We better not give it to them because it’s going to look like we’re showing favouritism,’ so they may have just taken themselves out of the race, which is not what you’re supposed to do when you’re getting paid to help them right?” the lobbyist said. “Hill and Knowlton knows better. I don’t know what happened there. They know what they’re doing, so maybe it was an event organized independent of their knowledge. But if I had a client that independently went to a fundraiser and made a donation and I was their lobbyist and I didn’t know it, we’d be parting ways in a hurry. You just can’t have that.”
Mr. Boudria declined to comment.
Mr. Powers said, however, that it is not fair to politicians or lobbyists to think that a $1,000 donation has a significant influence on decision-making.
“When it comes to dollars, one of the things that [former prime minister Jean] Chrétien started and [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper finished is really taking out the ability of people to use their money to influence, or potentially influence, the way a politician may act. It’s insulting to all of us to assume that $1,000 buys you a decision at the CRTC. I don’t see that ever happening,” he said.
Democracy Watch fought a situation like this in Federal Court and won a ruling that stated that lobbyists cannot fundraise for ministers they are lobbying as it creates a conflict of interest. This brought on a controversial interpretation of Rule 8 of the Lobbying Code of Conduct, which governs conflict of interest rules. As a result of the Federal Court case, Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd released an interpretation bulletin stating that “political activities” could create a conflict. Lobbyists spoke out saying it was too sweeping and could potentially violate their Charter rights. Ms. Shepherd subsequently issued another interpretation bulletin outlining “high,” “medium,” and “low” risks of conflict when it comes to “political activities.”
The Globe and Mail also reported that federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson is reviewing whether Mr. Calandra may have contravened the Conflict of Interest Act for public office holders or the Conflict of Interest Code for MPs and not yet decided whether or not to launch a formal investigation.
Mining and energy, agriculture and financial institutions
busiest lobbyists last month
The mining and energy sectors are the “hottest” in the country at the moment, and with the government expecting $500-billion worth of investments in 500 mining and energy projects over the next decade, it’s “self-evident” in the government relations industry, say lobbyists.
“There’s just a ton of activity going on across the country,” Summa Strategies vice-president Tim Powers said last week. “The news of course is all about the northern gateway, but there’s lots of mining developments from Labrador all the way out to B.C. and they require regular activity of all manner shape and form by the proponents of all those projects. Whether they’re talking about environment related issues, other permitting issues, labour issues, federal-provincial issues, it’s not surprising for energy and mining. I think it’s one of the hottest sectors in the country at the moment, so it will probably be very constant in the lobby registry I suspect going forward.”
Of the 177 companies or organizations that lobbied the government between June 19 and July 19, 13 per cent were mining and energy companies.
Last week, China National Offshore Oil Company indicated it would take over Nexen, a Canadian oil sands company for a 60 per cent premium on their shareholders’ holdings, totaling $15.1-billion. Lobbyists said this merger and acquisition lobbying file will be a big one to watch as the Conservative government has said several times it would review and possibly revise the “net benefit” clause of the Investment Canada Act.
“There are a lot of people interested in this, not just the immediate proponents, but those who represent clients who could soon find themselves in a place where the entities that they represent is buying something or is being sold. I think we all watch these with great interest, particularly as it relates to the Investment Canada review process and seeing if the government is going to move forward as it said it would on defining this whole so called net benefit because lobbyists and other strategic advisers in the business are trying to give their clients the best advice possible about how they proceed,” Mr. Powers said.
One lobbyist said this particular transaction will be “politically sensitive” for the Conservative government which has defended the oil sands as a resource Canadians should be proud of. “The optic of having less and less ownership of this resource that has been held out as being so critical is a bit of a paradox that the government’s going to have to deal with communications wise,” the lobbyist said. “Subsidizing ourselves, okay, subsidizing a foreign entity, no, regardless if it’s ethical oil or not.”
Public Affairs Association of Canada president John Capobianco, a lobbyist with Fleishman-Hillard, said that while an investment by the Chinese could cause some feathers to be ruffled, the country of origin of the takeover is less relevant than what they’re taking over. “Are they taking over a Canadian iconic company that produces natural resources? Is it taking over something else? Is it merging? Is it going to set up offices? Is it going to continue offices? I think all those issues quite frankly are far more political than the country that’s taking it over. But the fact is, China, there’s always some issues with some folks,” he said, noting however that Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) has shown a willingness to work with China over the years.
Mr. Harper said last week however that Canadians shouldn’t prejudge the outcome of the review. Industry Minister Christian Paradis (Mégantic-l’Érable, Que.) told reporters last week the same message. “We’ll see what the case is, and we’ll scrutinize the case very closely,” he said. “It has to be for the net benefit of this country. This is the bottom line here.”
The second busiest sector was agriculture at 11.2 per cent and financial institutions came in third at seven per cent.
The other businesses or associations which met with government in the last month included several health and pharmaceutical industry representatives and universities or the education sector.
Mr. Capobianco said that it’s not a surprise those three sectors were at the top.
“All three tend to do steady lobbying on a regular basis. They’re very sophisticated. A lot of them have their own internal GR teams. A lot of them use external GR support as well. Those three sectors specifically I find are very active in lobbying and advocating and reaching out to government,” he said.
When it comes to agriculture, lobbyists said the ongoing drought world wide could have something to do with the increase in effort from the agriculture sector. “It might be too that they’ve had no rain, so they’re going to be coming for money,” one lobbyist said.
There’s also the issue of supply management and the international trade debate Canada is having with the European Union, the United States, Japan and South Korea. Those trading partners want to see Canada’s end to protection for the dairy and poultry from foreign imports. The Conservative government currently defends supply management.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Bea Vongdouangchanh
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