Earlier this week, Parliament's Lobbying Commissioner was provided with copies of 68 pages of documents, mostly e-mail exchanges, between former MP Rahim Jaffer and various Conservative politicians, Conservative political aides and senior government bureaucrats. Here's a summary of the documentary record for Jaffer's contact with Western Economic Diversification Canada
Western Economic Diversification Canada, referred to frequently simply as WD, is the regional development agency for Western Canada. It has a budget this year of about $430 million, most of which is handed out in the form of grants and loans to fund a variety of economic development prospects. Lynn Yelich (Blackstrap – SK) is the Minister of State responsible for the deparment.
In the late spring of 2009 — more than seven months after he lost his Edmonton seat in the 2008 general election — Jaffer contacted Doug Maley, the No. 2 bureaucrat at WD. Jaffer wanted a loan or grant for $700,000 from Maley's department for a deal he was trying to put together for a company called RLP Energy Inc.
On May 27, 2009, at 7:56 a.m., Jaffer e-mailed Maley. He began by referencing a conversation from the day before, telling Maley he was looking forward to golfing with him in June. Then Jaffer got down to business, sketching out RLP Energy's proposal to test a new prototype technology to get rid of mercury at a TransAlta-operated power plant west of Edmonton.
Jaffer told Maley in the e-mail that a private investor was ready to put up U.S.$500,000, the U.S. Department of Energy would kick in U.S.$350,000 and “it is desired that the Canadian federal government, through Western Economic Diversification, invest approximately $700,000 as an active partner in the program.“
Minutes after receiving that e-mail — at 8:04 a.m. — Maley forwarded Jaffer's proposal and project description to one of his subordinates, David Woynorowski, a director general in charge of operations at the federal agency. Maley told him: “Can you have someone review this on a priority basis as I need to get back to Rahim this Friday afternoon on whether this may be of interest to WD?”
Woynorowski replied less than 30 minutes later, telling Maley the proposal was being reviewed and offering some preliminary observations on Jaffer's pitch; Woynorowski was skeptical that WD should help fund Jaffer's plan.
“Not sure why we would consider supporting tech development plan/testing for . . . Transalta. We would need some sort of wider industry/sectoral benefit to result,” Woynorowski wrote.
Three hours after that, Maley wrote to Jaffer: “We will review this and get back to you shortly.”
Then, on June 4, 2009, just after 10 a.m., Jaffer sent Maley an e-mail to see if the two could meet “for a coffee or lunch” when Jaffer was in Edmonton to receive his executive MBA.
“Congrats on your Convocation!!!“, Maley wrote back a few hours later, before giving Jaffer the bad news: because RLP Energy is a private-sector, for-profit corporation, the federal government could not help.
But Maley didn't exactly close the door and picked up on what Woynorowski mentioned in his preliminary review.
“If this technology rested with an industry association, we likely could get involved,” Maley wrote.
He then gave Jaffer a road map to other ministries and agencies at the federal level — such as Environment Canada — to lobby and also told him to find out if the provincial government in Alberta could help out.
The direction Jaffer took next is not clear, but the government says RLP Energy never received any funding for its mercury-capture testing.