Liberal MLA Bill Bennett is seen in this file photo from 2013.Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press
Premier Christy Clark says she is confident that B.C.'s conflict commissioner will give Mines Minister Bill Bennett a green light for injecting himself into the regulation of hunting while holding a financial stake in the industry.
"He has been checking in with the conflict commissioner for 11 years; I think he has done what he needs to do," Ms. Clark told reporters Wednesday.
Commissioner Paul Fraser confirmed he has provided Mr. Bennett with verbal advice about his involvement in a guide outfitter company. However, Mr. Fraser says it will likely be March before he will produce a written opinion.
"I don't take these requests lightly," Mr. Fraser said.
Although it is not in his ministry portfolio, Mr. Bennett has been involved in the allocation of hunting quotas between resident hunters and guide outfitters. In December, the government changed its wildlife allocation policy, giving guide outfitters an increased share of big game.
Last week, The Globe and Mail reported Mr. Bennett is still owed $70,000 for an unpaid shareholder loan he made 14 years ago to Height of the Rockies Adventure Co. Ltd., a commercial hunting business that has a lodge in southeast B.C. Mr. Bennett once held shares in the company, but sold them on entering politics so that he would be free to engage in hunting issues. He said his brother and two best friends retained shares in the company, and he has frequently visited the lodge.
He said the business recently sold at a loss and he expects to get repaid only about $30,000 of the loan.
NDP MLA Katrine Conroy, who has been vocal on hunting issues for the opposition, said Mr. Bennett should have sought a written opinion from the Conflict of Interest Commissioner before inserting himself in the controversial allocation policy.
"You would think that would have been done a long time ago," she said Wednesday.
"I still have concerns that someone so aligned with that sector would be part of those discussions. You have to question where your objectivity would lie."
Mr. Bennett told reporters last week he has received verbal approval from the commissioner to involve himself in the hunting file.
"I have asked the Conflict of Interest Commissioner whether I had any obligation to recuse myself from discussions at committee meetings about hunting and fishing and guide outfitting and resident hunting and this sort of thing, and he said 'no.' So I've done everything that I think a politician should do," he said then.
Mr. Fraser, in an interview, said Mr. Bennett is entitled to release his letter publicly once it is drafted, but suggested that citing a verbal opinion was unwise.
"If you have consulted the commissioner, and the commissioner has given you a letter, you are entitled going forward to produce the record. You can't simply quote piecemeal from the letter; you have to release it in its entirety," he said.
"If what you have received is oral advice, then you are in a difficult position because you can't produce the words that were spoken … The better part of judgment is to ask for an actual letter. I don't want to be in a position of a 'he-said, I-said' situation."
On Wednesday, asked about the file in Question Period, Mr. Bennett avoided any characterization of the advice he received.
"I did ask the Conflict of Interest Commissioner last week to provide an opinion in writing so we could put this issue to rest one way or the other."
Ms. Conroy noted that the Premier chose to obtain a written opinion from the conflict commissioner last year when Ms. Clark's ex-husband took a position with a company proposing to build an oil refinery on B.C.'s North Coast. Mr. Fraser concluded in that case that Ms. Clark would be in an apparent conflict of interest if she participated in decisions related to the refinery. The Premier announced she would recuse herself from any government decision-making on any oil refinery matters.
Justine Hunter