July 16, 2008

Insufficient Regard for the Public Interest

John Doyle is BC's new Auditor General. His report on removing private land from tree farm licenses is so hot that it is still smoking. In the course of preparing it, he put a complaint before the BC Securities Commissions regarding unusual trading in Western Forest Products, as well as a complaint before the Conflict of Interest Commissioner regarding potential conflict of interest under the terms of the Members' Conflict of Interest Act.

The release of 28,000 hectares of private land from three coastal tree farm licenses held by Western Forest Products occurred on January 31, 2007 when Rich Coleman was the responsible minister. Coleman has been shuffled to a new super-ministry. If the CBC website is correct, his successor, Pat Bell used exceptionally harsh and undiplomatic language to personally attack the Auditor. The CBC site quotes Bell as saying: "It is, in my view, unprofessional - lacking of integrity. We are offended by this report. We think it is totally inappropriate and if Mr. Doyle thinks that this is how we do business in Canada, he's dead wrong." Bell's comment refers to Doyle's Australian origin from where he was recruited and unanimously selected by an all party committee of MLAs, a majority of whom were government MLAs. It is traditional for ministers to simply thank the Auditor for his report and commit to doing better. I cannot find another example in BC history of a minister personally attacking the Auditor General.

In describing his report in a three page covering letter, Doyle wrote:

"Overall, the report concludes that the removal of private land from TFLs 6, 19 and 25 was approved without sufficient regard for the public interest. The report notes that:

• "the decision was not adequately informed - it was based upon incomplete information that focused primarily on forest and range matters and the interests of the licensee, with too little consideration given to the potential impacts on other key stakeholders;
• "consultation was not effective and communication with key stakeholders and the public about the decision was not transparent; and
• " the impacts of previous land removal decisions were not monitored to help inform future decisions."

A few paragraphs later Doyle wrote:

"For my office, the review highlighted the need to better understand government's approach to public consultation. As a result, my staff are currently reviewing the direction and guidance provided to ministries and agencies on the consultation process. The results of this work will be reported later in the year."

Nice timing! On the eve of the provincial election the Auditor General will release a report on the arrogance of the Campbell government, describing how it fails to consult the public. Perhaps that is one of the reasons Forest Minister Pat Bell blew a fuse that makes the blackout in Vancouver look small by comparison.

Coleman refused to meet with the Auditor or his staff to discuss why he made the decision to remove 28,000 hectares of land. The Auditor appears to speculate on one possible reason in a sidebar on page 41 of his report which notes that between 2005 and 2007 Western Forest Products donated $60,470 to the BC Liberal Party. BC's first Conflict of Interest Commissioner, Ted Hughes, probably would have called that an apparent conflict of interest. One of the current questions is whether Coleman was in a conflict because his brother is an executive at Western Forest Products. The Commissioner's report on that matter will also make interesting pre-election fodder.

In Premier Campbell's one-man government, it is inconceivable that Coleman acted without approval from Campbell's office. Campbell has to account for the outrageous behavior of his ministers and for why his government has failed to protect the public interest.