Bob Chiarelli was paid $7,500 a month to lobby on behalf of Algonquin College.Jonathan Hayward for The Globe and Mail
The controversy over public institutions using taxpayer funds to lobby the Ontario government has hit closer to home for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty with revelations that one of his own cabinet ministers was on the payroll of a community college.
The McGuinty government has been on the defensive all week since the New Democratic Party revealed that hospitals, universities and colleges, which receive public funds, have hired lobbyists. On Thursday, the NDP turned up the heat by releasing documents showing that Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli lobbied the government on behalf of Algonquin College before he won his seat in a by-election last March.
According to Ontario Lobbyists Registration documents released by the NDP, Mr. Chiarelli terminated his three-year relationship with the college last Jan. 25, one week before he was acclaimed as the Liberal candidate in the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean. Before his by-election victory, Mr. Chiarelli was MPP for the neighbouring riding of Ottawa West for 10 years, followed by two terms as mayor of the city.
Mr. Chiarelli defended his involvement with Algonquin, and said 95 per cent of the work he did for the college involved no communication with the provincial government.
"It was done openly, it was done transparently," he told reporters. "It was part of the public dynamic that was happening in my community."
Mr. Chiarelli also said he withdrew his name as a lobbyist well before he won the by-election. Nevertheless, reports that he was paid $7,500 a month by the college to help it work with developers come at an awkward time for the McGuinty government.
The college received $35-million from the McGuinty government in 2008 to create 600 more spaces for students, the NDP said. Around that time, an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen criticized Mr. Chiarelli for getting paid $7,500 a month to lobby government officials on behalf of the project.
"He did nothing illegal but the optics are terrible," NDP MPP Peter Tabuns told reporters on Thursday.
The NDP has accused the government all week of allowing taxpayer dollars that should be invested in the hospitals, universities and colleges to be diverted into the pockets of "well connected" insiders. In response, Mr. McGuinty has pledged to ensure that these institutions do not use public money to lobby government for more funding.
After NDP Leader Andrea Horwath this week identified 14 hospitals and nine universities and colleges that retained lobbyists, the government announced plans to introduce legislation to ban the practice for public institutions.
Mr. McGuinty said in Question Period on Thursday governments led by both the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP had allowed such activity, but it is no longer acceptable.
"Nobody should be using taxpayer dollars to hire a lobbyist to ask for more taxpayer dollars," he said. "That's just not sensible. It's not in keeping with our standards and our values."