(The following story by Patrick Brethour appeared on the Globe and Mail website on April 19.)
VANCOUVER — The B.C. government is ordering an independent review into questions surrounding the relationship of the former top finance bureaucrat and lobbyists connected to an RCMP probe into corruption in the sale of B.C. Rail.
A government official, who did not wish to be named, said the last such review was conducted more than three years ago into the actions of consultant Doug Walls, who received government money without proper approvals. That controversy resulted in the resignation of a government minister and a senior bureaucrat.
The Globe and Mail reported late last month on an e-mail exchange between Erik Bornmann and Brian Keiran, both then lobbyists with the Pilothouse government relations firm. Pilothouse represented OmniTRAX, a U.S. company that was bidding on the sale of B.C. Rail by the finance ministry.
In that e-mail, Mr. Kieran talks about a fishing trip with former deputy finance minister Paul Taylor, and how the senior bureaucrat assisted him in a bid to get Pilothouse work with the New Car Dealers of BC. Mr. Bornmann retorts: “Well, I could come up with this kind of great intel too if I lived next door to a blabby Deputy Minister.”
Both lobbyists have been tied to the corruption trial of former political aides Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi. Mr. Bornmann has said he offered bribes, and Mr. Kieran has told police he offered a monetary inducement to Dave Basi and Mr. Virk in exchange for confidential information related to the sale of B.C. Rail. Lawyers for the accused in that trial, which began this week, have said the information could have come from any number of sources, and all three accused deny any wrongdoing.
Nothing in the e-mail ties Mr. Taylor to the sale of B.C. Rail.
Finance Minister Carole Taylor revealed yesterday in Question Period that the government has ordered an external review after The Globe and Mail story. Speaking in the legislature, she said the government views it as a serious matter, but cautioned against allegations about Mr. Taylor’s “career and personal integrity.”
“All we have here is a memo between lobbyists that has been unsubstantiated but raised concerns that the Deputy Minister to the Premier [Jessica MacDonald] immediately brought in a third party to review the situation,” Ms. Taylor said.
“When this memo first hit the press and we saw the situation and the comments that were made, it was certainly taken very seriously by this side of the House. When the e-mail was first made known to the Premier and the Deputy Minister to the Premier, action was immediately taken,” she said.
Ms. Taylor’s disclosure of a review came after the opposition NDP attacked the government for failing to address its queries, made last November, on whether Mr. Taylor had directed lobbying work to Mr. Kieran. NDP Leader Carole James criticized the government for naming Mr. Taylor to the board of the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project, even while a review of the e-mail was under way, and called on him to step aside from that post and from his job as head of the Crown-owned Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.
In an interview, Ms. James questioned why the government only revealed the existence of the review this week. “They certainly hadn’t told us, or the public.”
The unnamed government official said Ms. MacDonald had already conducted an internal review after hearing of outside inquiries in mid-March, and then decided to commission KPMG to conduct a second, independent review.
Mr. Taylor said he welcomed the review, but would not be stepping aside. “I’ll take all measures necessary to protect my reputation,” he said yesterday in an interview, declining to elaborate on what those measures might be. Asked why someone might raise such a matter, he said, “Sometimes desperate people do desperate things.”