Maple Leaf lobbyist linked to mayor's office
November 21, 2005

The wife of Mayor Di Ianni's chief aide has been lobbying on behalf of Maple Leaf Foods for the last 15 months. Hillary Dawson, a lobbyist for Strategy Corp Inc and the wife of the mayor's executive assistant Mario Joannette, filed with the provincial lobbyist registry to act on behalf of the meat processing company on September 17, 2004.

That's the month that Maple Leaf contacted Di Ianni's office about re-locating its Burlington pork processing facility to Hamilton. It's also when the mayor "implemented the Invest in Hamilton Team to secure this investment and gave this project top priority" - according to the city's economic development manager Neil Everson.

Joannette was the first person Di Ianni hired after taking office in November 2003 and is described as the quarterback of his office and right arm of the mayor.

Dawson came to public attention in Hamilton shortly after Di Ianni took office and hired Joannette as his executive assistant. The Hamilton Spectator revealed that the mayor and Joannette had issued $20,000 in contracts to Strategy Corp, without revealing that Joannette's wife worked there, and was specifically working on the file. The contracts were issued four days after Joannette's hiring. Di Ianni and Joannette were criticized for the failure to report the relationship, and the mayor took responsibility and said it was an unintended error.

Dawson has continued to work for Strategy Corp. The registry currently identifies one of her lobbying purposes as " issues surrounding the operations of Maple Leaf Foods Inc in Ontario". In this regard she is registered to lobby various sections of the provincial government including the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Office of the Premier and Cabinet.

The province and the city held a press conference late last month to unveil a $20 million grant from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal to pay for servicing the North Glanbrook Business Park. Maple Leaf has signed a tentative deal with the city to purchase 46 acres of land in this business park to build a hog slaughterhouse and processing facility intended to replace their Burlington facility.

The provincial funding of the servicing appears to have paved the way for the city to move ahead with the land sale to Maple Leaf. Council had its first meeting on the deal two weeks after the provincial announcement. A final decision is now scheduled to occur this coming Wednesday at a special committee of the whole meeting starting at 4 pm in council chambers.

The lobbyist registry also says that Dawson may use "grass-roots communication" as one of the techniques of her lobbying activities on behalf of Maple Leaf. She shares the Maple Leaf assignment with Leslie Noble, the founder of the company, and the woman who chaired both of former Premier Mike Harris' successful election campaigns.

The entry on the registry describing Noble's activities appears to be identical to that for Dawson. They are both part of a list available at http://lobbyist.oico.on.ca/Integrity/RegistrationGeneral.nsf/
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