OTTAWA — The Conservative government has climbed down from its hard line toward senior Tories who worked on its transition team, bringing in an amendment to its ethics bill last night that would allow them to become lobbyists under certain conditions.
Team members who placed people in top jobs in ministers' offices and the Prime Minister's Office can lobby the very people they hired if an independent commissioner exempts them from the five-year ban that the new law creates.
The amendment to the federal accountability act, which was moved by Treasury Board President John Baird, follows public criticism from ranking Conservatives and is at odds with government pledges not to revisit the issue. The amendment passed last night with the support of all parties, as did a separate motion to allow the accountability act to receive a final vote today, which will send the bill to the Senate.
Getting House of Commons support before the summer recess is a success for the government, which had made the bill's changes to election financing, lobbying and government ethics a priority.
A transition team is a small group of advisers who help a new prime minister with the first decisions of office, such as the makeup of the cabinet and whom to hire for senior positions.
Just last week, the PMO was unapologetic when Derek Burney, the head of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's transition team, said it was “unfair” of the Conservatives to lump transition-team volunteers in with the senior public servants and politicians who are to be subject to the five-year lobbying ban.
In an interview, Mr. Burney defended Elizabeth Roscoe, who volunteered on the team and recently registered as a lobbyist for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.
The Prime Minister's spokeswoman, Sandra Buckler, said at the time that the Conservatives would not change the bill.
“Canada's new government remains committed to cleaning up the cozy relationship between lobbyists and government,” she told The Globe and Mail this month.
Mr. Baird, the Treasury Board President, made similar comments last Tuesday in the House. He said yesterday that the amendment is simply a technical change to ensure that members of the transition team have the same right to appeal to the quasi-judicial commissioner as any other politician or public servant who falls under the act.
“It was a fairly straightforward technical amendment,” he said. Mr. Baird said he believes transition-team members do have influence, but acknowledged they could be allowed to lobby if they can secure an exemption.
Mr. Baird denied that the public comments from Mr. Burney and Ms. Roscoe inspired the amendment, which states: “Any member of a transition team ... may apply to the Commissioner of Lobbying for an exemption from that section.”
The amendment then provides a broadly worded list of reasons that the commissioner could exempt someone from the five-year ban, such as the nature of their duties and their influence on the transition team.
New Democratic MP Pat Martin, who has confirmed that he agreed to support the government's bill in exchange for amendments, said Monday that the exemption for transition team members is fair and that he does not think it will mean Ms. Roscoe will be allowed to lobby the government.
Ms. Roscoe could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, yesterday, a representative of Canadian businesses said that the new bill could cast a chill on business-government relations.
Perrin Beatty, president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said in an interview that forcing lobbyists to log their contacts with senior officials and disclose the nature of their conversations would give a leg up to a business's competitors.
“You may find that you're signalling to your competitors what your business strategy is,” Mr. Beatty said in an interview.
The law may drive lobbying underground, he said, with prearranged meetings replaced by informal or “spontaneous” discussions over dinner or drinks. With a report from Brian Laghi
