Tory lobbyists: another Stephen Harper promise evaporates

Two Tory aides bolt to lobby for clients like the Canadian Payday Loan Association. It wants to abolish the 60% Criminal Code ceiling on interest.

Ottawa (30 March 2006) - The first session of the new Conservative Parliament won't convene until April 3 but already two Tory staffers have bolted government ranks to cash in as lobbyists.

Kevin Macintosh and David Salvatore, aides to ministers Rob Nicholson and Monte Solberg, left earlier this month and have already lined up a stable of big-name clients ready and willing to pay for their influence with the new administration.

How could this happen?

How could they transform themselves so quickly into lobbyists after Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ringing declaration last November that he would allow no such thing. All Tory aides would be barred from lobbying for a minimum of five years after leaving government service, he pledged.

That was then, and now is now, apparently.

Semantics

Today the official Tory line is that Macintosh and Salvatore are exempt because they were "parliamentary" rather than "ministerial" aides to their ministers.

The distinction between the two categories is not readily apparent. But no matter. It's a lucrative difference for each of them, and for the many others who could leap through the same loophole and into the waiting arms of Ottawa lobbying outfits.

To a large degree, it was Harper himself who discarded his lofty campaign rhetoric and gave lobbying a green light in his new government. It happened in February when he appointed Sandra Buckler, a lobbyist with Fleishman-Hillard, as his new communications director.

Buckler "delisted" as a lobbyist just four days prior to the election after spending years lobbying on behalf of more than a dozen high power corporate clients, including Power Financial Corp., Royal LePage Relocation Service, Coca-Cola, CN and Rogers Wireless.

Now Macintosh has jumped to Buckler's old lobbying firm and taken over several of her former clients.

In fact, he is not only registered to lobby MPs and departments, he is also lobbying the Privy Council Office, the department that supports the Government House Leader, the Intergovernmental Affairs Minister and the Prime Minister's Office, where Buckler now works.

Nice work if you can get it.

Payday loans

Another client that Macintosh will be servicing is the Canadian Payday Loan Association, the group that looks out for those companies who prey mercilessly on low-income Canadians by offering short-term loans at unconscionable rates, often in violation of the Criminal Code.

Members of the association include names like MoneyMart, Speedy Cash, The Money Shack, The Fast Cash Co., Cash Money, EZ Cash Advance and Phone Cash Money Transfer.

Payday loan sharks routinely charge rates that exceed 1,000% interest annually. The Criminal Code limit is 60%. They get away with this by disguising most of their charges as administrative fees rather than interest.

But they find this awkward. They crave respectability. And thus, one of the messages Macintosh will be whispering in the ears of Tories that matter is that there is an urgent need to get rid of the inconvenient 60% Criminal Code limit.

Toiling for Wal-Mart

While Macintosh is slaving to make life better for these folks, Salvatore will be working at Prospectus Associates on behalf of hard-pressed clients like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Porsche Cars North America Inc.

He is now duly registered to lobby several government departments. Issues he will be pursuing on their behalf include labour matters, such as employment and training.

It won't be hard to guess which side Salvatore will be favouring when it comes to the UFCW Canada drive to organize Wal-Mart workers, a drive strongly supported by the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

It's worth remembering that it was only last November when Harper, in announcing plans for a new Accountability Act, declared that parliamentary staffers could no longer use politics as a stepping stone to a lobbying career.

"Make no mistake," he told a Tory gathering on Parliament Hill, "if there are MPs in this room who want to use public office for their own benefit, or if there are hill staffers who dream of making it rich by trying to lobby a future Conservative government, if that's true of you then you better make different plans or leave."

Some dream, some difference. NUPGE