Red Hill lobbyist bill finally revealed
July 6, 2006

The on-going lawsuit of the city against the Canadian government has resulted in the release of some long-hidden information about the amount of tax dollars spent on professional lobbyists in an attempt to counter citizen opposition to the Red Hill Creek Expressway.

Hamilton is suing over 60 Canadian civil servants and four former cabinet ministers for allegedly trying to harm the city by supporting or working on a federal environmental assessment of the expressway in the late 1990s. The lawsuit seeks $75 million from Ottawa. A consultant's report detailing the alleged extra costs incurred by the city was released last week. It includes the first ever accounting of the amount of money spent by the city on lobbyists during an 18-month period in 1999 and 2000.

Citing information provided by Chris Murray, the acting Red Hill project director, the report says "the former Region of Hamilton-Wentworth incurred consultants' fees and disbursements totalling $215,094.79 plus GST of $14,583.65 in its efforts to dissuade the federal government from imposing CEAA on the project. These disbursements were incurred through five government relation firms in 1999 and 2000, for a total cost of $229,678."

The hiring of the lobbyists began in the summer of 1999 when the former regional government launched a court battle to prevent the completion of a federal environmental assessment that had been started a year earlier as a result of hundreds of letters to the environment minister from Hamilton residents. Invoices for the lobbyists end in 2000 around the time the court hearings were completed.

The Hamilton Spectator exposed the lobbying activity shortly after it began, but later attempts to determine how much was spent were blocked by the city. Before last week's report, the total lobbying bill revealed was less than $20,000.

It is unusual for governments to hire lobbyists, using public money to influence decision-making by another level of government. At the time, the Spectator could only find three other municipal governments that had hired lobbyists.

Invoice amounts detailed in the report reveal that StrategyCorp collected the lion's share of this spending - almost $96,000 over 14 months. Regional chairman Terry Cooke boasted at the time that StrategyCorp had convinced the provincial government to support the city's legal action against Ottawa. Now the federal government is being asked to pay the bill for this lobbying.

StrategyCorp was founded by Leslie Noble, the campaign manager for Mike Harris in 1995 and 1999 and an author of Harris' Common Sense Revolution. The company was criticized in 2004 for receiving a quarter-million dollar untendered contract from the provincial Conservative government.

Mayor DiIanni and his executive assistant Mario Joannette got in hot water for hiring StrategyCorp immediately after the 2003 election when they failed to reveal that Joannette's wife worked for the lobbying firm.

The report reveals that three other lobbying firms also collected substantial amounts from Hamilton's government. Association House got nearly $51,000; Earnscliffe Strategy Group collected $42,000 and Environmental Economics International picked up $33,000.

The Association House website says its services include "creating the right image and developing public understanding and support for a particular project, service or desired change in government regulations or legislation". The company also offers to "[help] you take your story directly to the right reporters and editorial boards, producing and placing news stories in targeted publications." It was during this period of time that stories appeared in several Ontario newspapers questioning the legitimacy of the federal assessment of the expressway.

Overall, the consultant's report claims the city has suffered about $35 million in increased costs because of delays blamed on the federal assessment. The calculations are based on a five year delay in the project, although the city's court challenge was completed in a little over two years.

More information about the lobbying firms can be found at http://www.associationhouse.com/index.html, http://www.earnscliffe.ca/index.php?page=company, and www.strategycorp.com.