OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s incoming chief of staff told MPs Tuesday an "ethical wall" will keep him out of a conflict of interest, but opposition parties are predicting the safeguards will just hamstring Nigel Wright from doing his job.
Wright appeared before a Commons committee examining his appointment as Harper’s top aide in the Prime Minister’s Office. Wright is on a leave of absence from his job as managing director of Onex. Corp., the Toronto-based private equity fund that manages billions of dollars in assets.
His appointment has sparked political controversy, with the opposition saying Wright could be in a conflict of interest – particularly since Onex is such a large company that deals with issues touching a range of federal departments.
Wright told MPs he has dealt with that by working with federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson to establish an "ethical wall" that identifies areas he cannot go near in the PMO. They include the Canadian aerospace manufacturing industry, any dealings with government involving Onex’s 40 companies, and such issues as the taxation of the private equity industry.
"I think it will work," said Wright. "In my view, it is going to be straightforward. It is not going to hinder service I give the prime minister."
Wright said all documents pertaining to issues on which he should not be involved will be "diverted" from him by others in government. He predicted there will be "limited" times when this is necessary.
"This matters to me. It matters to the government. We will get it right."
But opposition MPs weren’t so sure.
Liberal MP Wayne Easter noted Onex is a massive company with dealings in areas such as defence, health, real estate and bookstores.
"There’s certainly the potential there for a conflict of interest," said Easter. "We are concerned about that."
Wright started his leave of absence from Onex on Monday. He joins the PMO Nov. 8 as a senior adviser and becomes chief of staff on Jan. 1, 2011.
Easter told Wright he is about to hold the second or third most powerful job in the country, and suggested he will be useless to Harper because the ethical wall will keep him out of the loop on key issues.
"How can you do your job?"
NDP MP Pat Martin concurred, saying Wright’s ethical wall is "crazy" and seems designed to "defend the indefensible."
He said almost "every move" Wright makes could be subject to the ethical wall and that, for instance, he wouldn’t be able to advise Harper on copyright legislation because Indigo Books is part of the Onex corporate family affected by the ethical wall.
"You can’t even order pizza for the PMO," he joked, noting that one of the Onex firms is a pizza business.
Furthermore, Martin said the government bureaucracy is being turned upside down to ensure Wright’s ethical wall works. "They’ve created a whole mini-bureaucracy just trying to keep you away from documents. Doesn’t that strike you as absurd?"
But Wright insisted it is not unusual for such systems to be put in place in government and the private sector to guard against conflicts.
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