PMO to make MP pay back donations from lobbyists
OTTAWA — The Prime Minister’s Office is going to ask Conservative MP Mark Adler to repay money that he solicited from lobbyists.
“It is not appropriate and he is going to be directed to refund any inappropriate donations,” Jason MacDonald, the prime minister’s director of communications, said Friday.
Postmedia News reported this week that Adler sold $400 tickets to a February 2013 fundraiser to about 30 lobbyists, including many with whom he held official meetings connected to his work on the finance committee
he direct solicitations seemed to violate guidelines established by ethics commissioner Mary Dawson, which forbid targeting “any organizations or individuals with which you anticipate having official dealings in your capacity as a member of Parliament.”
MacDonald said Friday that donations that appear to violate that rule will have to be returned.
“Specifically, he will have to pay back any money from lobbyists registered to lobby (the) Department of Finance, and people he met with in his official capacity,” he said. In question period on Thursday, in response to opposition questions about Adler’s fundraiser, Paul Calandra sidestepped the matter. On Thursday, NDP and LiberalMPs both wrote to Dawson asking for her to investigate Adler’s activity.
The PMO did not respond more quickly because it needed to establish the facts, MacDonald said.
“You have to do your due diligence,” he said.
Several Conservative cabinet ministers — who work under somewhat tighter rules than backbench MPs — have returned questionable donations in recent months.
In 2012, Calandra paid back $5,000 in donations from people connected to radio stations after the Globe and Mail reported on the connection to a highly sought after licence.
In January, Heritage Minister Shelly Glover returned some donations from a fundraiser held in her Winnipeg riding after CTV discovered it was being held for members of Winnipeg’s arts community.
In opposition, Stephen Harper often attacked the Liberals for allowing a “revolving door” of lobbyists in and out of government. The Conservatives’ landmark accountability act, passed in 2008, established tougher rules, including a five-year ban on lobbying for former political staffers.
Hours after the PMO announced that Adler would pay back the money, Adler emailed a statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution, I have asked my (electoral district association) to repay any donations solicited from anyone who is registered to lobby on Finance matters, who has testified before the Finance Committee, or with whom I have met in my capacity as a member.”
Adler cancelled a planned Edmonton event on Friday night, blaming the NDP for preventing him from travelling in time since they oppose a private member’s bill that would require employees of officers of parliament to disclose any partisan activity.
Adler has embarrassed the Harper government in the past.
In January, when Harper was visiting the sacred Western Wall in Jerusalem, Adler was recorded pleading with a Harper staff member to be allowed to be photographed at the site with the prime minister.