A lobbyist who represents some corporations with extensive B.C operations is expected to head Liberal leadership candidate Paul Martin’s transition team. On July 19, the Globe and Mail reported that Michael Robinson of the Ottawa-based Earnscliffe Strategy Group will oversee the transition team, which will make recommendations on key appointments in a Martin-led federal government.

The Globe and Mail did not identify any corporations that Robinson promotes. According to the federal Lobbyists Registry, Robinson has 26 clients, including the British Columbia Lumber Trade Council, the Forest Products Association of Canada, Duke Energy Gas Transmission, EnCana, Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Petro-Canada, MDS Inc., Microsoft Canada Co., the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, CIBC and its investment dealer CIBC World Markets.

Robinson managed Martin’s campaign in the 1990 Liberal leadership race won by Jean Chrétien. Since 1996, Robinson has registered as a federal lobbyist for 71 clients, including Alcan Inc., which owns a smelter in Kitimat, in 1999 and 2000; Bombardier Inc., which sells SkyTrain systems, between 1999 and 2001; and CanWest Global Communications Corp., which owns the Vancouver Sun, the Province, the National Post, and the Global television network, in 1996.

Robinson did not return the Straight’s call by deadline to explain how he will deal with his roster of corporate clients while he is leading Martin’s transition team. Duff Conacher, coordinator of the Ottawa-based citizens’ watchdog group Democracy Watch, told the Straight he thinks lobbyists should be prohibited from working on politicians’ campaigns and heading politicians’ transition teams.

“Lobbyists represent private interests, and politicians are legally required to uphold the public interest,” Conacher said. “Tying the two together creates a clear conflict that is a recipe for corruption.”

However, Wayne Soper, Vancouver-based senior vice-president of Duke Energy Gas Transmission, told the Straight he doesn’t see any reason for his company to sever its relationship with Robinson just because he is slated to head Martin’s transition team.

“I think that’s a perception issue,” Soper said. “My dealings with Earnscliffe are all government affairs, business-related—day-to-day business-related—issues. They have nothing to do with that [the transition].”

In the spring of 2002, North Carolina–based Duke Energy bought Vancouver-based Westcoast Energy for $8.5 billion. Westcoast Energy donated $100,000 to Martin’s leadership campaign, according to a recently released list of contributors.

Soper said he couldn’t discuss the donation because he wasn’t involved. This year, Martin’s campaign has issued six statements listing contributors, who have donated more than $6 million so far.

Duke Energy Gas Transmission has announced it will sell its 50-percent share of Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd. this fall to its partner, TransCanada Pipelines Inc.

Foothills Pipe Lines, which is represented by Robinson, hopes to build a $20-billion natural-gas pipeline along the Alaska Highway.

“It will definitely be federally regulated,” Soper said, “and therefore involve federal as well as territorial and provincial agencies.”

According to the Lobbyists Registry, Robinson lobbied the Finance Ministry on behalf of several clients while Martin was minister. Last year, Conacher filed a complaint with federal ethics counsellor Howard Wilson, alleging that Robinson and others violated the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct by working on Martin’s leadership campaign at the same time they represented clients dealing with Martin’s ministry.

The code states that lobbyists shall not place public office holders in a conflict of interest “by proposing or undertaking any action that would constitute an improper influence on a public office holder”. Last January, Wilson issued a statement declaring it is “not reasonable” to believe a lobbyist has exercised “improper influence” merely because he helped a minister’s leadership campaign at the same time he lobbied the minister’s department.

Wilson’s bulletin also defined “improper influence” as the “improper use of power or trust in a way that deprives a person of free will”. Conacher said that Wilson’s statement means a lobbyist must “enslave” a politician before the lobbyist can be found guilty of breaking the code.

Democracy Watch has alleged in Federal Court that Wilson’s office has a “structural bias” in the way it makes decisions.

“Because in order to find that a lobbyist is guilty of...putting a public office holder, a minister, in conflict, he has to find that the minister is in the conflict,” Conacher said.

Conacher added that the ethics counsellor can’t do this because under the public office holders’ code, the Prime Minister may overrule any of Wilson’s rulings.