Oshawa is going to have a Port Authority, a federal agency taking over for the Harbour Commission that serves industrial port users. Before the Authority is even up and running, though, questions about conflicts of interest have risen:
New powers, present problems and old faces are what’s driving the conflict of interest questions at the new Oshawa Port Authority.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty recently announced Oshawa’s Harbour Commission, the last such organization in Canada, would be transitioning to a Canada Port Authority.
“You have to recognize, quite frankly, that a port authority is much more powerful and more oriented to the whole country than a harbour commission,” states Minister Flaherty, present in the place of the transport minister. “The harbour commission is an old-fashioned, 1960s idea in Canada. Oshawa’s in the big leagues today.”
Some who heard the edict were curious: What happens now?
The implications had politicians howling in Ottawa. MP Olivia Chow railed against the federal government for allowing Minister Flaherty’s Electoral District Association president and Harbour Commission Chair Gary Valcour for being allowed to continue in an interim role at the port authority. She asked the federal government during Monday’s Question Period: “Did the Conservatives create another patronage board just to reward the minister’s friend, or did they do it so they could impose the (ethanol) refinery against the wishes of the people of Oshawa, or are they doing both?”
Pierre Poilievre, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Transport shot back that all appointments by the government are based on merit, and that, “The transition team in place was already at the helm of the port commission before the announcement last week. The partners of course are going to collaborate to put in place a successful new port authority.”
Back in Oshawa, accompanying Minister Flaherty for last Friday’s announcement were Oshawa MP Colin Carrie and Valcour. Also in attendance was Oshawa’s City council, sitting silently in the front row.
It is no secret that council has been waging a war against an ethanol plant at Oshawa’s harbour. There was no confirmation made by any of the speakers if the facility is a “fait accompli,” as Minister Flaherty called the new port authority.
Another concern raised was whether or not there is a conflict of interest in having Valcour serve as the interim chair of the port authority.
Valcour is, or was, the president of the Whitby-Oshawa Conservative EDA, which is Minister Flaherty’s turf. His influence at the harbour, his ties to the EDA, the increased power of the Oshawa Port Authority and the continuing saga of the still-sought-after ethanol plant has people asking questions. Especially since the ethanol plant is being proposed by FarmTech, with Tim O’Connor, who served with Valcour on the same Whitby-Oshawa EDA, as a director.
