Shelling out money for dinner with politicians is a tried-and-true way of getting your message into powerful ears. But getting the ear of professional public servants at an invitation-only banquet is wrong.
As Dermod Travis, executive director of IntegrityBC, explained on these pages on Aug. 12, business lobbyists have been invited by the B.C. Chamber of Commerce to annual dinners with provincial deputy ministers since 2013. It’s billed as a chance to bend the ear of decision-makers.
Deputy ministers are the top civil servants who run government departments large and small. They are supposed to be professionals who are removed from politics. They shouldn’t be trotted out like taxi dancers to take a turn around the ballroom in the arms of a guy with deep pockets.
The chamber makes no bones about the purpose of the $275-a-plate dinner.
“This private, invitation-only event creates an ideal forum for dialogue and discussion between guests and leaders of British Columbia’s public service,” reads the six-page invitation.
“The evening consists of a reception and a dinner, where guests are seated directly with the deputy minister of their choice. This is an unparallelled opportunity to express your perspective and concerns directly to B.C.’s deputy ministers.”
That’s an “unparalleled opportunity” that ordinary British Columbians — who might also be affected by the decisions of the government, or have policy changes they would like to suggest — don’t get at any price.
Travis rightly describes the participants at the 2013 event as a “who’s who of B.C.’s lobbying industry.”
The companies and groups represented by the lobbyists included drug companies such as Eli Lilly and Purdue Pharma, along with energy giants such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Independent Power Producers of B.C., Imperial Oil, ConocoPhillips Canada and Kinder Morgan.
That the former B.C. Liberal government allowed or even concocted such dinners is not surprising because of its pro-business bent. But what were the deputy ministers thinking when they agreed to take part?
Specifically, why is the deputy minister of health dining out with lobbyists for big pharma, and how could the deputy attorney general sit down with companies that might at some future point be involved in litigation with the province?
All those organizations are perfectly capable of putting their case in government offices during business hours, which is what regular citizens have to do. An invitation-only dinner makes it appear that the lobbyists can buy access that the rest of us don’t get.
Senior civil servants should know better than to create that impression, but since they apparently don’t, the new government should stick a fork in this meal, because it’s done.
