Raitt met with ethics watchdog before shuffle

Hours before she was named as transport minister Monday, Lisa Raitt spoke to the federal ethics commissioner about her new job.

Raitt’s common-law husband, Bruce Wood, is the president and chief executive officer of the Hamilton Port Authority, a federally mandated organization with considerable regulatory involvement with the department she now leads.

Raitt’s press secretary, Ashley Kelahear, would not say what the minister and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson spoke about Monday morning, or whether Raitt was given any guidance on the matter.

But Kelahear suggested Raitt’s portfolio wouldn’t create any new issues, as her old job as labour minister sometimes involved regulation affecting federal ports.

“Minister Raitt as Minister of Labour had regulatory responsibilities with respect to Canadian Port Authorities under the Canada Labour Code,” she said in an email.

The Hamilton Port Authority operates under the Canada Marine Act and its directors are appointed by cabinet through the governor in council process.

Wood, however, was hired directly by the port authority and not appointed.

Policy for shipping, marine transportation and security — all key issues for the port — fall directly in Raitt’s new portfolio.

Wood has served as the top executive at the port since 2008, when he was hired to replace former Liberal cabinet minister Tony Valeri.

He is also past chairman of the board of directors of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities, an industry group that was registered to lobby Transport Canada as recently as March.

Raitt herself worked in ports administration before entering politics, having served as president of the Toronto Port Authority.

In her new role, Raitt will also have responsibility for air travel — an important file for her former employer, which has control over Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, and its key tenant, Porter Air.

Raitt and Wood have attended social events together for several years and she listed him as her “spouse/ common-law partner” on the MP’s conflict of interest declaration she filed with Dawson in January 2012. There is no indication, however, that Dawson has placed any special recusal requirements on Raitt to prevent conflicts with her spouse’s work.

After his cabinet was unveiled, Harper was asked whether it was appropriate to appoint Raitt, a unilingual anglophone, to the transport portfolio in the wake of the rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Que. Harper told reporters that he had great confidence in Raitt and predicted she would well serve Canadians across the country.