Lobbyists in, Lobbyists Out

[jdobbin]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/071111/...s_hire_lobbyist

Kory Teneycke, the former executive director of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, was hired this fall to lead the Conservative research bureau, which prepares talking points for Tory MPs and digs up dirt on the opposition.

While such lobbyist-to-government moves are in no way banned, critics say it's another example of the hypocritical "revolving door" between the Conservative government and the lobbying industry - a practice whose termination was a central plank in Harper's election platform.

"The Federal Accountability Act set out to tie a bell around the neck of lobbyists, and virtually nothing has happened," said NDP MP Pat Martin, who considers Harper's showpiece legislation to be "stalled and dead in the water."

"It's business as usual," said Martin, "and the revolving door is still swinging freely between Conservative (political) staff and lobby houses, and then back again."

The FAA was the first piece of legislation introduced by the minority Conservative government and the bill received royal assent last Dec. 12. Yet the regulations governing lobbyists remain under review and have not yet come into force.

Treasury Board Minister Vic Toews declined an interview request. His spokesman, Mike Storeshaw, said the regulations are coming but could not provide a time frame.

How can a bill that was approved last December still delayed the way it is? You certainly can't blame the Opposition because the bill received Royal Assent.

But according to one full-time government watchdog: "What they've put in place has more loopholes than rules."

Duff Conacher, co-ordinator of Democracy Watch, says that even when the lobbying regulations are finally implemented, the legislation will fall far short of Harper's promise.

"The unethical, undemocratic revolving door between lobbying and the government is still pretty much wide open, even though the government pledged that they would close it."

The latest in a long list of examples includes a senior member of Environment Minister John Baird's staff and a member of Public Works Minister Michael Fortier's staff, who both recently left to work as lobbyists in Ottawa.

Mike Van Soelen, Baird's communications director when the former Treasury Board minister was shepherding the accountability act through Parliament, quit this August to set up Playbook Communications. The Ottawa public relations company promotes itself by stating that its "government expertise can help clients achieve their objectives, from raising an organization's profile to securing specific regulatory changes."

Darcy Walsh, who served as Fortier's director of parliamentary affairs at Public Works, quit last month to join Hill and Knowlton Canada. A news release from the lobbying giant said Walsh will "implement the marketing and sales plans for the Public Relations and Public Affairs divisions of the Ottawa office."

Both Van Soelen and Walsh argue they are following "both the letter and spirit" of the FAA. Walsh even got clearance from the federal ethics commissioner for his move.

But it was Baird, Van Soelen's boss at the time, who said last September that "no people . . . who have access to the type of information that pervades government should be working for a lobbyist for five years."

If we go strictly by what Harper, Baird and others have said, we should not be seeing what we have being seeing in terms of lobbyists moving in and out of government with seemingly no restrictions.

[Topaz]

It seems to me that Harper is stalling on this bill so he can do what they want to do and then he'll bring back and make law. Canadian government is becoming more like the US in dirty politics and I wonder how many dirty secrets they have?