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 Jaffer's contact with Infrastructure Canada. He and his company had three proposals. The combined “ask” for all three proposals could have been as high as $135 million in federal funding.
Infrastructure Canada is largely responsible for administering the disbursement of billions of dollars in infrastructure money, notably the Green Infrastructure Fund. Its minister is John Baird, the MP for Ottawa West-Nepean. Brian Jean, the MP for Fort McMurray-Athabaska (AB), is Baird's Parliamentary Secretary.
In a letter filed April 26, 2010 with Parliament's Lobbying Commissioner, Jean says that in June, 2009, Jaffer and his partner Patrick Glemaud “stopped by my office on one occasion to inquire about the federal Green Infrastructure Fund. It was an unscheduled and informal meeting.” Jean said he explained to the two of them what the fund was about. Jean says no specific projects were discussed and no commitments were made. He says this meeting was the only occasion in person or by phone in which he discussed the fund with Jaffer or Glemaud. “Over the course of the next three months, I received three project summaries from Green Power Generation (Jaffer's and Glemaud's company). The first two projects were potentially eligible and were therefore sent to Infrastructure Canada for further analysis … Subsequently it became clear that these two projects did not fit well within the mandate of the fund ..” These two GPG projects are a Solar Power project and another one known as DPS Kinetics.
On July 7, 2009 at 12:46 pm, Jean's assistant Kimberley Michelutti sends an e-mail to one of the Parliamentary e-mail accounts assigned to Helena Guergis, Jaffer's wife, who was, at the time, Secretary of State for the Status of Women. She begins the e-mail: “Hi Rahim”. She tells Jaffer she's following up on the project summaries that Jaffer sent to Jean's office and explains how Jean's office will review them before sending them on to bureaucrats at Infrastructure Canada.
Unfortunately, the department has a lot on their plate at the moment and their turnaround is not that good … That's where we're currently at. I'll be sure to keep you posted on any further developments; feel free to contact me with any questions.
A few hours later, at 3:07 pm., an e-mail reply to Michelutti comes from the Guergis e-mail account:
Thanks Kim! I appreciate the update … Even if the department is not interested it would be good to know what their issues with the projects are for future preparation. … Take care, Rahim.
On July 17, 2009 at 12:27 p.m., Michelutti sends an e-mail to an assistant deputy minister and copies other senior officials at Infrastructure Canada. One of those officials is Mark Haney. Haney was the acting director general of strategic planning and reporting within the policy and priorities directorate at Infrastructure Canada. Michelutti wrote:
Please see the two attached project proposals from Green Power Generation for consideration under the Green Infrast ructure Fund. Your comments and preliminary review would be greatly appreciated.
On August 13, 2009, at 12:10 p.m., an e-mail is sent to Michelutti from Glemaud's Gmail account. Glemaud is higlighting some points about the Solar Power proposal. In that e-mail Glemaud writes:
The maximum of share funding required from the federal will be 25% of the total eligible cost, namely $58 million.
On Aug. 26, 2009 at 1:38 pm, an e-mail is received at Jean's personal Parliamentary e-mail account from the same Parliamentary e-mail account assigned to Guergis. The e-mail reads:
Have you had a chance to look at the proposal for our solar project and power systems. Our preference is for the solar if there needs to be a choice between the two. I would love to talk to you about it if you have some time. Thanks, Rahim
Jean tells the lobbying commissioner he did not respond to this e-mail.
On Aug. 31, 2009 at 2:25 pm, Michelutti sends an e-mail to Haney and Francis Bilodeau, asking for updates on the status of nine projects Jean's office has submitted to Infrastructure Canada Bilodeau is the director of environmental initiatives in Haney's office. Two of the projects mentioned in this e-mail are GPG's solar power project and DPS Kinetics project.
A few minutes after receiving this e-mail from Michelluti, at 2:42 p.m., Haney sends an e-mail to Sonya Read, asking her to prepare a response for Michelutti. Read was an acting director in Haney's department.
On Sept. 2, 2009 at 2:48 p.m., Read replies via e-mail to Michelutti and sends a carbon copy to Haney as well as to Jennifer Dawson, who, as a director general in Infrastructure Canada, is senior to Haney and Bilodeau. The e-mail from Read provides an update on the status of each of the nine projects Michelluti has asked about. As for each of the Green Power Generation projects, she simply writes: “Project is being assessed and note prepared.”
On Sept. 8, 2009, a briefing note is prepared for Baird and approved by Haney and Haney's superior assistant deputy minister Taki Sarantakis. The briefing note provides background and assessment on on the Solar Power Green Power Generation project. The bureaucrats recommend against approval.
Jean would then receive a third project by mail from Jaffer and Glemaud in the first week of September (2009). This is the Green Rite project. “I dismissed (it) right away,” Jean told the Lobbying Commissioner this week.
But before “right away” can happen, Jean has Michellutti do a little work on the Green Rite file. On Sept. 17, 2009 at 7:01 p.m., Michelutti sends an e-mail to Glemaud. She has some follow-up questions on the Green Rite project.
One Sept 22, 2009 at 12:22 p.m., Glemaud responds from his Gmail account with the answers that Michelutti was seeking.
On Sept. 30, 2009 at 6:56 p.m., Michelutti e-mails one more follow-up question, asking if the project could help dispose of trees destroyed by the Mountain Pine Beetle. Later that evening, at 11:09 p.m.. Glemaud replies by e-mail to Michelutti to say yes.
On Oct. 7, 2009, another briefing note from Infrastructure Canada bureaucrats, approved by Read and Sarantakis, that provides Baird with background and assessment of the GPG DPS Kinetics project. The bureaucrats again recommend that Baird spike the proposal.
The government says, at the end of it all, no federal funding was provided to any of these three projects.
Wow !! Golly gee !! These are huge numbers you are throwing around, David !!
But what happened to all these attempts to get money from the government – exactly nothing. To quote Allan Gregg, from last night's “At Issue”, all it proves is that access by itself is not enough. To actually get money out of this government, you need a solid project.
Certainly, Jaffer is guilty of trying to lobby without bothering to stick to the rules, and certainly, he should face the consequences of that. BUT NOTHING HAPPENED. NO MONEY CHANGED HANDS. Sorry, Liberals, but them's the facks. So quit trying to pin this on the Government, because the system worked.
Al of these memos could equally well be read as saying, “This guy is a former colleague, go through the motions of looking at his requests, deal with it as quick as possible and get him of my case.”
I would love to know where the billions in stimulus went