Irving dealings off-limits to LeBlanc
OTTAWA• Federal ethics commissioner Mary Dawson has told Liberal house leader Dominic LeBlanc he must avoid participating in any decisions involving the powerful Irving family of New Brunswick.
LeBlanc, a key political lieutenant to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, cited his friendship with James D. “Jim” Irving as a potential conflict of interest in an undertaking filed with Dawson last month.
His chief of staff, Vince MacNeil, must “screen” him from any dealings with Irving’s company, J. D. Irving Ltd., and its affiliates and subsidiaries.
This will “ensure that I will abstain from any participation in any discussions or decision- making processes and any communication with government officials in relation to any matter or issue forming part of the subject matter of the conflict- of- interest screen,” LeBlanc promised in the written declaration.
LeBlanc refers to Irving as “my friend,” though he is believed to be closer to Irving’s son, Jamie, who runs the family’s chain of newspapers.
Irving is president and chief executive of J.D. Irving Ltd., part of the Irving family conglomerate that has interests in numerous industrial sectors, including shipbuilding and oil refining.
The Irvings are involved in the proposed Energy East pipeline, which would bring oil from Western Canada to New Brunswick for refining. The government has promised a new approvals process to consider whether or not to green-light the pipeline.
Through Irving Shipbuilding, the company is also beneficiary of substantial government contracts to build new vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy at its shipyard in Halifax.
The ethics screen set up for LeBlanc covers “J. D. Irving Ltd., its subsidiaries, affiliates, associates, divisions and or any legal form of business in which he or his companies may have a private interest.”
The prime minister and the clerk of the privy council have both been told about the conflict screen, according to LeBlanc’s disclosure statement.
But the ethics undertaking will doubtless raise questions about LeBlanc’s unofficial role as the minister at the cabinet table responsible for New Brunswick, as the tentacles of the Irving family’s interests extend throughout the province, from the pulp and paper sector to the neartotal domination of the province’s print media.