Lobbyists worked as government advisers

Conflict of interest concerns have been raised after at least four people who were registered as lobbyists were recruited by the government.

The federal government’s Executive Interchange Program, executives from the private sector are recruited to advise government agencies on a temporary basis. A CBC investigation has revealed that four people who were registered as lobbyists were recruited into the program, causing concern that their policy advice was less than impartial. In 2007, a Telus executive named Ian Scott was recruited to work at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission while still registered as a lobbyist for the company. Scott said he was not still working as a lobbyist and that he would have been accused of hiding something if he had taken his name off the registry.