Since the Liberals formed government last November, Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipeline have lobbied Ottawa an astounding 86 times, federal lobbying reports reveal.

Fifty-one of those meetings have taken place since August — which, funnily enough, is around the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started backtracking on his commitment to ban oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast, a policy that would leave Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal dead in the water.

Since October last year, representatives from Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipeline met with representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office eight times, Transport Canada 10 times, Fisheries and Oceans Canada 10 times, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada 12 times, Natural Resources Canada 31 times, and mostly Liberal Members of Parliament 39 times to name just a few.

During this time Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipeline lobbyists met with more than 130 top-level chiefs of staff, policy directors, and ministers, records show.

Diesel Spill Off B.C. Coast Creating New Urgency Around Promised Tanker Ban

The issue of oil transport along the B.C. coast has been thrust back into the spotlight in the wake of ongoing diesel spill recovery efforts near Bella Bella.

Coastal residents were in a state of disbelief last night after learning an emergency response vessel, sent to B.C.’s central coast to retrieve the diesel-leaking Nathan E. Stewart, sank beside the sunken tug in windswept waters.

Since October 13, cleanup of the diesel spill in the traditional waters of the Heiltsuk First Nation has been slow and unsuccessful, hampered by a lack of response equipment, relief crews and favourable weather.

This has heightened criticism of the federal government and Trudeau who made a clear commitment to enact an oil tanker ban for the north B.C. coast during his election campaign last year. Trudeau even included formalizing the tanker ban on the list of ‘top priorities’ in Transport Minister Marc Garneau’s mandate letter in early November last year.

When pressed on his promise to ban tanker traffic — a proposal some say is not nearly comprehensive enough to protect the coast from vessels like the Nathan E. Stewart —Trudeau awkwardly dodged the question.

“Over the past year there’s been a lot of underinvestment by the federal government in marine safety and spill response. That’s something we’re absolutely committed to turning around,” Trudeau told Breakfast Television.

“And one of the symbols of that — as someone who knows Vancouver and the Lower Mainland as well as I do — one of the first things we did was reopen the Kits coast guard base because we understand that having responders there if something happens is absolutely essential.”

Jess Housty, tribal councillor for the Heiltsuk, took to Twitter to express her dismay with the Prime Minister’s comments.

“Saw your interview today,” Housty tweeted. “You know Kits is ~650km away from Bella Bella and Seaforth Channel, right?”

Nathan Cullen, MP for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley region in B.C. and environment critic for the NDP, said it is incredibly frustrating for coastal people to have the federal government stall on the tanker ban.

“When we are talking about protecting the coast out here, for the people who live here, that’s life and death,” Cullen told DeSmog Canada.

“The insult is twice because the promise was twofold: one, to bring in a tanker ban. It’s been a year and we’re still waiting. Two, to establish respectful relations with First Nations.”

“This is literally killing two birds with one stone,” Cullen said.

He added Trudeau’s inability to follow through on his promises is indication of a dangerous duplicity.

“We are a year in and one has to wonder if there are two Justin Trudeaus. One that campaigns and does public events and Twitter. The other that meets in the private backrooms in Ottawa with more oil lobbyists — one would imagine by a factor of 10 — than he has with environmental and First Nation leaders.”

Cullen said it isn’t just the diesel spill near Bella Bella that British Columbians have to worry about, but the pending decision on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline.

“You wonder if the West Coast is being thrown under the bus for nothing other than political calculation.”

John Horgan, leader of the B.C.NDP, said the response to what is unfolding in Bella Bella at both the federal and the provincial level has been “frustrating” and “astounding.”

“It does really speak to an Ottawa-based arrogance to believe that reigniting the much-needed Coast Guard base in Vancouver is somehow a benefit to the coast north of Vancouver Island all the way to Prince Rupert,” Horgan told DeSmog Canada.

When asked about Enbridge and Northern Gateway’s recent lobbying spree, Horgan said “the government should spend more time with the people of B.C. when considering these problems and less with those lobbying government offices.”

Lobbying Records Disclose the Bare Minimum: Watchdog

These high volumes of lobbying are troubling, according to Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, a government accountability watchdog.

“Everybody should be worried about the power of large corporations in terms of lobbying governments,” Conacher told DeSmog Canada.

“They not only have economic power in terms of threatening to sue under trade deals or to take their business elsewhere…but they also usually hire people who have connections to the ruling party to do their lobbying so they have undue and unethical political power as well.”

Conacher said Enbridge and Northern Gateway could be doing a lot more lobbying of the federal government without any disclosure due to vast amounts of lobbying loopholes.

The documented lobbying by Enbridge and Northern Gateway is likely just scratching the surface, he said.

“Only oral pre-arranged meetings are required to be documented in those monthly logs. So you shouldn’t think that’s all the lobbying: that’s just the lobbying they disclosed.”

– With files from James Wilt

Enbridge Northern Gateway Lobbying Aug 2015-Oct 2016 – Sheet1 by DeSmog Canada on Scribd

Image: Justin Trudeau via Flickr

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Enough isn’t being done to ensure companies are following Canada’s weak lobbying and disclosure rules, according to democracy expert Duff Conacher.

Conacher, founder and long-time coordinator of Democracy Watch, told DeSmog Canada there are numerous ways to evade lobby rules.

“Overall, secret lobbying is legal,” he says. “You just have to exploit the loopholes.”

Conacher says the Lobbying Act is rife with loopholes, making it very difficult for citizens to keep track of when and with whom corporations and organizations are meeting.

For one, if a meeting concerns the “enforcement, interpretation or application” of a law or regulation that applies to a company, they don’t have to log it. The Lobbying Act also only requires paid personnel to log lobbying efforts, which can lead to a “hired gun” billing a company for “strategic advice” and the conducting the lobbying for ‘free.’

Also, only the “responsible officer” of a company or organization — usually the president or CEO — is required to list themselves in a lobbying effort. As a result, it’s impossible to know who actually lobbied the government in a meeting.

For instance, on January 11 (improperly listed as January 12 in the registry), the Petroleum Services Association of Canada met with international trade minister Chrystia Freeland about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Mark Salkeld, the president and CEO of the association, is the only person listed in the communication. But seven other people involved in the oil and gas industry also participated in the meeting (as well as two chiefs of staff and a deputy minister from the government of Alberta.)

On paper, it looks like it was a meeting between Freeland and Salkeld. But it actually included a dozen people.

How Secret Lobbying Occurs

But perhaps the biggest loophole of them all is that only “oral, prearranged” communications need to be logged.

That means that any lobbying that occurs via writing doesn’t qualify. Nor does “accidentally” bumping into someone at a fundraiser or in a hallway.

Conacher says such tactics could be used for “any emails or any meeting where both the minister or their staff or any government official and Lone Pine themselves want to get around a disclosure they communicated. And if the person inside government was also wanting that not to be registered, what they would do is have the person call them at a non-prearranged time.”

In 2008, the Conservatives introduced the revamped Lobbying Act, requiring the monthly logging of communications between lobbyists and “designated public officer holders.” In 2010, MPs and senators were added to the list of designated public office holders, meaning a company or organizations would have to log a report if they made a communication with them.

But the aforementioned loopholes were never closed.

Lone Pine Lobbied Without Registering Report

On January 15, Jeff Smith — a lobbyist representing Lone Pine Resources, the company suing Canada for $118.9 million over the Quebec fracking ban — met with Brian Clow, the chief of staff for the ministry of international trade.

We know this because Lone Pine, like with any company or organization that participates in lobbying of high-ranking public officials including MPs, senators, ministers and staff, must register such a communication in the federal lobbying registry.

You can see the report of Smith’s meeting with Clow here.

The nature of the communication was peculiar for a few reasons: If the company is attempting to negotiate a settlement, it’s safe to assume that such conversations would happen between lawyers, not politicians and civil servants (although Lone Pine may be attempting to put internal pressure on the government to settle.)

But stranger still were the results of an access to information and privacy (ATIP) request that DeSmog Canada made in regards to the meeting.

As it turns out, the meeting on January 15 wasn’t the first time that Lone Pine had lobbied Clow: an email exchange from four days earlier referenced a “discussion they had before Christmas.”

According to another email, Nadia Theodore — then a director of trade negotiations with the foreign affairs department — attended the January 15 meeting with Clow (an email noted that her “policy perspective would be appreciated.”)

Neither of these occurrences were logged in the lobbying registry.

Milos Barutciski, partner and co-chair of international trade and investment at Bennett Jones LLP (the firm that’s serving as counsel for Lone Pine in the suit against Canada), replied to a request made to Lone Pine’s CEO: “I can confirm that our client's government relations advisors understand and comply with their Lobbying Act registration obligations.”

“Note that only oral communications described in the regulations are required to be disclosed in monthly filings. The communications you reference are not within the scope of the regulations.”

The “discussion” prior to Christmas could have occurred via email, meaning it would not have to be logged in the database. And while Theodore’s presence at previous meetings with other lobbyists had been logged 22 times, she didn’t occupy a high-ranking enough position to legally require it.

This reality is a very major problem, and one that points to fundamental flaws in the way that lobbying is tracked and publicized.

‘Secret Lobbying is Legal’ if You Know Which Loopholes to Exploit, Says Democracy Watchdog https://t.co/dGh5LKGbWr pic.twitter.com/J8y1VO2CeO

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) July 8, 2016

Only Two Lobbyists Found Guilty of Breaking Rules Since 1988

The Liberals didn’t mention lobbying in their 2015 platform, although the party pledged to “amend the Access to Information Act so that all government data and information is made open by default in machine-readable, digital formats,” as well as extending the reach of the act to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Conacher says the government has shown no interest in increasing the responsibilities and scope of the lobbying commissioner, meaning many infractions are likely going unnoticed and unpunished.

The current commissioner, Karen Shepherd, doesn’t audit government departments. Since 2004, only 67 lobbyists have been caught violating the Lobbying Act. Almost all have been let off the hook without punishment or public scrutiny.

Only two lobbyists have been found guilty of illegal lobbying since 1988.

Bruce Carson, a former top aide to Stephen Harper, will be receiving a ruling on his alleged prohibited lobbying in the next few months.

Estimated 1,600 Lobbyists Broke Rules Over Past Two Decades

Conacher says there are some 5,000 active lobbyists working at any given time, and that around 25,000 that have registered since 1988. The number of lobbyists over the course of a year — many will deregister as soon as they’ve finished work for a company or organization — has increased in recent years as well.

In 2014-15, Shepherd only conducted 20 administrative reviews, finding one worthy of referring to the RCMP. The identities of lobbyists who violate the code, but aren’t charged, are kept hidden.

“The percentages are so small that our conclusion is only five per cent have been caught,” Conacher says. “And that 1,600 lobbyists have likely violated the code or the act since 2007. But only three have been charged.”

Conacher suggests the lobbying commissioner should be conducting random samples of every government institution: for example, obtaining all communications with ten companies for the last three months, including phone logs for the minister and staff.

Feds Not Interested in Changing Rules

Shepherd’s seven-year term just finished. She’s expressed interest in being reappointed, something that Conacher says “would be a tragedy and continue to undermine transparency in lobbying.”

There’s also talk about merging the responsibilities of the ethics commissioner and lobbying commissioner into one, which could potentially impact the overall effectiveness of the role.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already been accused of getting too cozy with lobbyists (during the campaign, the party’s co-chair had to step down for providing recommendations to TransCanada on how to lobby a Liberal government.)

All up, there’s clearly plenty of work to be done in improving the communication and monitoring of lobbying activities. What’s less obvious if anyone’s going to take such opportunities seriously.

Image: Danny Huizinga/Flickr

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Public interest group Democracy Watch released a letter (link to pdf) to ethics commissioner Mary Dawson Friday, requesting she launch an inquiry into former Conservative cabinet minister Chuck Strahl in the wake of revelations that he's working as an Enbridge lobbyist while also serving as Canada’s top spy watchdog.

The letter points to rules in the Conflict of Interest Act that require public office holders to manage their private life to avoid conflicts of interest. Strahl’s work as a lobbyist, Democracy Watch suggests, invites conflicts of interest, rather than prevents them.

Recently the Vancouver Observer revealed Strahl had registered in B.C. as an Enbridge lobbyist. As the chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), some questioned Strahl’s suitability to judiciously oversee the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the spy agency involved in the monitoring of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline hearings.

Democracy Watch also notes that Strahl violated the waiting period meant to prevent former public office holders from using their government contacts to advance private corporate interests.

Enbridge met with Strahl in his role as a cabinet minister on April 29, 2010. Strahl left his position on May 17, 2011. Five months later, in October 2011, Strahl signed an open letter in support of Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline. In December of 2013, Strahl registered as a B.C. lobbyist listing Northern Gateway Pipelines L.P. as his client.

According to Duff Conacher, board member of Democracy Watch and adjunct professor with the University of Toronto faculty of law, Strahl is allowing his work with government departments and Enbridge to overlap in illegal ways.

“There’s a rule that you cannot work for any entity, or any organization, or anyone, that you had significant dealings with during your last year in office… And therefore Strahl should not have been dealing with Enbridge until May 18, 2013, which would have been two years after he left office,” he told DeSmog Canada.

"The open letter Strahl signed on to was illegal,” Conacher said. “You’re not allowed to make representations to anyone for any entity that you had significant official dealings with during your last year in office.”

Yet signing an open letter in favour of Enbridge projects is just the beginning of Strahl’s misdeeds, according to Conacher. Far more serious is Strahl’s position with the oversight committee tasked with protecting citizen rights from CSIS.

“Beyond that though there is a general rule about preventing conflicts of interest…so I don’t think he can work for Enbridge as chair of SIRC because that causes conflicts; it does not prevent them.”

In addition, Conacher worries Strahl’s cabinet position may have exposed him to government information that could be used to benefit Enbridge’s push for the Northern Gateway pipeline.

“There is another rule, that never ever in your entire life after you leave cabinet can you give advice using secret information that you’ve learned on the job,” he said.

“It’s not only that your not allowed to share the secret information; you’re not allowed to do that. But you’re not allowed to even give advice using the secret information. He can’t un-know what he knows and so his advice is based on what he knows. What he knows is secret information, therefore he’s prohibited from giving that advice.”

Canada’s ethics commissioner Mary Dawson has been politely side-stepping the issue, Conacher says. Her track record shows she tends to avoid controversy as well, with over 80 former ethics rulings made in secret. Conacher’s concern is that Dawson, a Conservative-appointed commissioner, is avoiding the hard questions — questions Democracy Watch details in its eight-page letter to her.

“It’s beyond conflict of interest. It’s also these other rules that apply and it’s not resolved by Strahl just recusing himself if a complaint comes forward about CSIS and Enbridge," he said. “And that’s what Mary Dawson has been dodging.”

Dawson is not required to investigate ethics complaints filed by members of the public. She would be required to investigate, however, if a member of parliament made the same complaint.

Strahl’s behaviour, Conacher says, is “very dangerously undemocratic” and “unethical” because it places “the interests of a few private companies way above the public interest.”

“That’s why it’s illegal,” he says. “Thankfully, it’s illegal.”

The Conflict of Interests Act has been reviewed over the past year by the House of Commons ethics committee. A full report outlining the position of each federal party on ethics issues is due out this week or when parliament resumes.

“You don’t have democracy if these rules are not strict, strong and enforced. As everyone knows: if you allow private interests to trump public interests then you don’t have democracy,” Conacher said. 

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Recent revelations that Canada’s top spy watchdog Chuck Strahl is also a paid lobbyist for Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipelines have Canadians in a rightful tizzy. The implications are grim, especially for citizens already concerned with federal overreach in the surveillance of environmental groups opposing the Enbridge's Northern Gateway oil pipeline and tanker proposal for B.C.'s coast.

Strahl is the federally appointed chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), an independent and non-partisan oversight agency designed to keep an eye on all activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

In November the Vancouver Observer released internal documents showing the federal government, the RCMP and CSIS had been working closely with the energy industry to address the issue of pipeline opposition and other barriers to energy development. Cross-sector responses between government and industry included the monitoring of environmental groups.

Lorne Sossin, dean of the Osgoode Law School at York University and specialist in constitutional law, regulation of professions and public policy, told DeSmog while Strahl may not be using his role as CSIS watchdog to advance the interests of Enbridge, the overlap of roles poses some threat to his perceived ability to perform as an independent adjudicator.

"I have no reason to think Chuck Strahl would use his position as chair of SIRC to advance interests of his clients as a lobbyist (whether Enbridge or others)," Sossin said. "That said, the nature of lobbying is building close relationships with government in order to advance client interests, while the nature of a regulatory and oversight body such as SIRC is to act independently to hold government accountable."

Sossin continued: "There seems to me to be an inherent challenge in having a lobbyist serve in such a capacity … The standard for impartiality at law is one of perception and I think a reasonable person could certainly see a conflict in this context. It may be that this concern is mitigated by the chair recusing himself in matters where his client's interests could be at stake but there may also be a perception of an inherent conflict in these roles." 

Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch called Strahl's lobbying "problematic" since "CSIS is investigating the people who oppose Enbridge."

“We need a full examination by ethics commissioner Mary Dawson into whether he used any information gained as a member of the Privy Council," Conacher said.  

On Wednesday, Dawson dismissed questions around conflict of interest in an exchange with the Vancouver Observer.

In December Strahl’s private consulting company took Enbridge on as a client to lobby on behalf of the company’s subsidiary Northern Gateway Pipelines L.P.

Strahl has previously publicly stated that he will not lobby and will take care to avoid conflicts of interest arising from his move to the private sector.

Recently the Vancouver Observer reported Strahl’s support of Enbridge can be traced back to an open letter signed in 2011.

The letter, entitled “A Choice for British Columbia” states:

Canada has talked about a “Pacific Gateway” for years: a tantalizing dream to position British Columbia as the leader of a coordinated national effort to leverage our strategic position into jobs, investment and prosperity for many decades to come.

Turning that dream into reality will require large, responsibly managed investments. It’s time to build the ports and pipelines, create the transportation systems, develop the skills and assemble the financial muscle to lead our country in tackling the challenges of global economic change.

…

Timely completion of natural gas pipeline and liquefaction capacity, as well as pipelines such as Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipelines Project, is essential for our economic future. 

Strahl’s open support of the pipeline has many concerned CSIS powers used to advance Enbridge interests above those of British Columbians will remain unchecked.

“Canadians were already concerned about the federal government using CSIS and the Canada Revenue Agency to target environmental groups and charities — now we learn the chair of CSIS’ civilian oversight committee is a paid pipeline lobbyist,” Nathan Cullen, NDP House Leader, said.

“This just further undermines people’s confidence in the fairness of the pipeline approval process.”

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