The Hits Just Keep on Coming For “Ethical” Chrissie Paradis

Oh my! Another ethical issue from Chrissy Paradis from his days as Minister of Public works. This happened that very same year he had met with Rahim Jaffer, no less. Ol’ Chrissy apparently had meetings with some bureaucrats and two firms from his riding. These firms are from the construction industry, no less. Well, one  is a pipe supplier & the other manufactures construction supplies. Take it away, Ms Ditchburn!

In that March report, Ms. Dawson briefly referred to the meetings with the two Quebec companies for context. Documents about the meetings were released to The Canadian Press last week under the Access to Information Act.

Ms. Dawson reiterated Friday that although ministers are MPs and should represent their constituents, there are limits.

“Ministers must ensure that they do not give preference to their constituents in their roles as Ministers that would not be available to any other Canadian,” Dawson said in an e-mail.

“Ministers have to represent all Canadians in that role.”

(snip)

E-mail traffic shows that when bureaucrats first got the edict from Mr. Paradis’s office to hold a meeting with Pultrall, they suggested the company simply attend a seminar offered close to the riding on how to do business with the government. Pultrall manufactures composite materials for construction.

But Mr. Paradis’s office rejected that idea, and asked for the meetings to be held in the Ottawa area, specifically naming ten bureaucrats it wanted to attend the meeting with Pultrall in April 2009.

At one point, an employee in the deputy minister’s office raised a red flag.

“There is no need to have 15 representatives at this meeting,” wrote the bureaucrat.

“The DM would not see this as the best use of their time.”

But in the end, about a dozen bureaucrats attended the meeting from across Public Works and even a pair from Foreign Affairs.

I wonder what more will crawl out of the woodwork for ol’ Chrissy Paradis? Something tells me this is not the end.  In fact, when the Charbonneau Inquiry resumes this September 17,  I wouldn’t be surprised if Chrissy’s name came up in a bad way yet again.