If General Rick Hillier was thinking of moving on, the federal government is taking away what would be for him a likely lucrative career. Treasury Board President Vic Toews today published proposed new regulations for the Accountability Act that would make it illegal for top generals and for some of the Prime Minister’s closest advisors to cash in their connections for top lobbyist jobs.
Toews has asked for a 30–day comment period on the proposed regulations but presumably, shortly after that, it will be illegal for the Chief of Defence Staff (that’s Hillier’s job right now)the Vice-Chief or the chiefs of the maritime, air force, and land staff along with other generals to become registered lobbyists for at least five years after they quit the Forces.
Given the money that the Defence Department gets to spend, ex-generals are highly sought after by the lobbying industry.
Let me just pick on one firm as an example: CFN Consultants, one of the bluest of blue-chip lobbyist firms in Ottawa. It’s senior partner is Patrick (Paddy) O’Donnell, a former vice chief of the air staff, and the firm’s members are lobbyists for, among others, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. There are plenty of folks in that firm who once commanded ships, squadrons, and tanks for Canada. Many more once worked on the civilian side of the department as high-ranking procurement officers (there are two former assistant deputy ministers – materiel working for CFN, for example).
CFN’s roster boasts Gary Garnett who was Vice Chief of Defence Staff from 1998 to 2001 and George Macdonald, another former Vice Chief of Defence Staff (2001–2004). Under the proposed new rules, Macdonald, who represents Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky, CAE, Bombardier and others, would still be barred from lobbying.
Also barred from lobbying for five years are people appointed “Senior Advisor to the Privy Council” and the Comptroller General of Canada.
Very unfortunately David, it is not true that a new lobbying regulation proposed by Federal Conservative Treasury Board Minister Vic Toews will prohibit General Rick Hillier (or anyone else) from lobbying for military hardware companies for five years after they leave the federal government.
While General Hillier and Cabinet ministers, some of their staff, and other senior government officials will be prohibited from becoming registered lobbyists, huge loopholes in the registration requirements mean that they will still be able to lobby (and be paid to do so).
This regulation and another one reveal the deep dishonesty and hypocrisy of the Conservatives.
The Conservatives have not delivered on their Accountability Act election promises, as Mr. Toews claims, as the Act does not contain 24 promised measures, and the new lobbying law and many other changes are much weaker than promised.
Ministers and senior government officials are not “required to disclose their contacts with lobbyists” as the Conservatives promised, which would have ended secret, unethical lobbying.
Instead, people who lobby for free as a favour to another person or organization will still not be required to register their activities on the searchable website, nor will lobbyists working in corporations as long as they lobby less than 35 days every six months.
As mentioned above, these loopholes mean that the Conservatives have also broken another election promise, as ministers, ministerial staffers and senior government officials will still be allowed to lobby the day after they leave government (either unpaid or part-time for a corporation) because the new five-year ban on becoming a lobbyist only applies to registered lobbying.
And, if another regulation is adopted as just proposed by the Conservatives, only registered lobbyists will be required to disclose only pre-arranged, verbal communications with ministers, their senior staff, and senior government officials. As a result, all written or informal communications will remain secret.
Similarly, the Conservatives' new Conflict of Interest Act actually weakens ethics standards for ministers, their staff and senior government officials, as it cuts the rules
requiring them to be honest and to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, and still allows them to take part in decisions and discussions even if they have a financial interest in the issue.
When all is said and done, much more is usually said than done. But Canadians deserve better, especially from the Conservatives who promised they would actually clean up the federal government (not just make false claims that they had cleaned things up).
Thankfully, all surveys show that Canadians have not been conned by the Conservatives, and if Mr. Toews and his colleagues think they will con Canadians again in the next election, they are only fooling themselves.
Sincerely,
Duff Conacher, Coordinator
Democracy Watch
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