Morneau hires TransCanada Spokesperson

[Oscar]

ACTION ALERT: One way to push back against this emerging link between Trudeau government staff and the oil and gas industry is to add your name to our Keep your promises, Liberals: Stop pipeline reviews.
[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=45149 ]

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Trudeau's finance minister hires TransCanada spokesperson as special assistant

[ http://canadians.org/blog/trudeaus-fina ... -assistant ]

December 4, 2015 - 1:53 pm

The Trudeau government continues to hire from the oil and gas industry.

Maclean's reports, "During the election, the Liberals turfed Liberal campaign adviser Dan Gagnier when it came out that he was simultaneously on the payroll of TransCanada, the energy infrastructure giant currently lobbying to put various pipelines into Canadian soil. 'The finance minister will be critical' for TransCanada fortunes, Gagnier wrote in a letter to the company. Coincidence or not, among the first hires by Finance Minister Bill Morneau: senior special assistant Sharan Kaur, a former communications specialist with … TransCanada." [ http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/meet ... partisans/ ]

In September 2014, the North Bay Nipissing News reported on a TransCanada open house in Mattawa to promote the Energy East pipeline. Kaur was at that open house and is quoted in the article highlighting that, "There will be millions in additional tax revenues for federal, provincial and municipal governments." [ http://www.northbaynipissing.com/news-s ... -pipeline/ ]

The Huffington Post adds (in French), "During the campaign, she helped Bill Morneau as volunteers in Toronto Centre evenings and weekends. By day, she worked as a communications specialist for TransCanada, a position she held since 2013 according to his LinkedIn profile." [ http://quebec.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12 ... 02570.html ]

As recently as this past September (during the election campaign), Kaur was in the news speaking for TransCanada after a fire at a compressor station for one their natural gas pipelines sent a large fireball into the sky just south of the Canada-U.S. border.
[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ ... -1.3218102 ]

Maclean's comments, "Had the Conservatives pulled the same stunt, we’d be hearing [from the Liberals] about the oil patch’s enduring influence over Harperland. But it’s crickets [from Liberal partisans] when a Liberal does it. Politicians are hypocritical by necessity. In their selective outrage, partisans are a far worse beast. They are hypocritical by design." The Huffington Post article notes that a spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance says that Kaur will have "no role in policy development" as a senior special assistant to the minister.

This follows the news that Natural Resources minister Jim Carr had hired as his chief of staff a former executive from Shell and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Earlier this week, iPolitics reported, "Janet Annesley came to CAPP in late 2009 after a nine-year career with Shell ... in roles including senior communications manager for stakeholder engagement and major projects (heavy oil), and manager for oilsands communications. ...She [then] served as vice president for communications at CAPP for five years before a brief stint as CAPP’s vice president for Ottawa and eastern/Atlantic Canada. ...With the proposals for the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipelines still undergoing regulatory review, Carr now has a chief of staff with a solid background in the energy sector."
[ http://ipolitics.ca/2015/12/01/former-c ... -minister/ ]


ACTION ALERT: One way to push back against this emerging link between Trudeau government staff and the oil and gas industry is to add your name to our Keep your promises, Liberals: Stop pipeline reviews.
[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=45149 ]


Further reading

Former CAPP vice-president now chief of staff to Trudeau’s natural resources minister (Dec. 2, 2015)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/former-capp-v ... s-minister ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]