Conservative candidate didn't register on time as travel nurse lobbyist
CBC
A Fredericton-based lobbyist and federal Conservative election candidate didn't promptly report his lobbying for a company supplying travel nurses to New Brunswick's struggling health care system.
Brian Macdonald, a former Progressive Conservative MLA, represented Canadian Health Labs in early 2023, seeking to arrange meetings with senior government officials, including his former PC caucus colleague Premier Blaine Higgs.
New Brunswick's Lobbyists' Registration Act requires a lobbyist to submit a return to the provincial integrity commissioner "within 15 days after commencing performance of an undertaking on behalf of a client."
However, Macdonald didn't register as a lobbyist for the company until this year, after it made national headlines.
His registration is dated Feb. 26, 10 days after an investigative report in the Globe and Mail newspaper revealed detailed information about Canadian Health Labs' contracts in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Macdonald told CBC News that he tried to register when he was hired last year but the process required him to list all of the company's contracts across Canada.
"Despite my repeated requests, CHL did not provide that information," he said.
"When the Globe and Mail reported on CHL around Feb. 16, 2024, I contacted the ethics commissioner and filed a disclosure because I wanted to ensure that my involvement with CHL was on the public record."
Under the act, a lobbyist like Macdonald who violates the 15-day registration requirement can be charged with an offence and, if found guilty, fined up to $25,000.
Integrity commissioner Charles Murray said he did not contact prosecutors because Macdonald has registered properly for other clients, tried to register for Canadian Health Labs and eventually approached his office about the breach voluntarily, albeit months late.
The law is designed "to encourage transparency. It's not designed to punish wrongdoing as much as it is to encourage [transparency]," Murray said.
"It's a voluntary scheme in many ways. So our goal is always to inform and to educate and to correct errors, rather than to punish someone. … Better to register you late than not at all, and better to register you with what information you're able to obtain than no information."
Macdonald said in his public registration that the focus of his work for Canadian Health Labs was "continuing and expanding" the company's business in New Brunswick.
In his statement to CBC News, he said no contracts resulted from his lobbying.
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