Agriculture and Agri-Foods Minister Lawrence MacAulay is sworn-in during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, November 4, 2015.CHRIS WATTIE/Reuters
The federal Agriculture Minister's senior adviser will be required to avoid discussions about the egg industry, the area she knows the most about.
Mary Jean McFall, chief of staff to Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay, has assets with Burnbrae Farms Ltd., one of the country's biggest egg producers and processors, and must abstain from dealing with policy matters specific to the company or the egg industry, the Ethics Commissioner said in a decision.
Ms. McFall, whose family owns Burnbrae, can engage in discussions of "a general application" about eggs, but she must avoid matters about Burnbrae, the egg industry or supply management and the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact in order to prevent a conflict of interest.
Her ethics declaration says she has an "interest in Burnbrae Holdings Ltd.," and a regulatory schedule in 2010 indicated that she and the company owned hundreds of thousands of units of fowl quota, worth hundreds of dollars each. Her sister is Burnbrae president Margaret Hudson and her husband, Ian McFall, is an executive with the company.
The TPP, negotiated under the previous Conservative government, was signed this year by the Liberal government, and is going through more study before ratification. The agreement proposes permitting market access to Canada of an additional 16.7 million dozen eggs per year, increasing over time to 18.8 million and representing about 2.3 per cent of production.
That would ease import restrictions under Canada's supply-management regime, a system of production quotas and import tariffs regulating the milk, cheese, egg and poultry sectors.
As part of the ethics screen, Ms. McFall must also avoid matters related to the Egg Farmers of Canada, the Egg Farmers of Ontario, the Farm Products Council of Canada and the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors, as well as their representatives.
"In the event that any issue or matter subject to the conflict-of-interest screen is not caught by that screen and comes before me, I undertake to recuse myself from that issue or matter," Ms. McFall's ethics declaration says.
The conflict screen will be administered by the minister's director of policy, the declaration says. Maxime Dea is Mr. MacAulay's policy director, according to the federal government staff directory. Mr. Dea, a lawyer and former policy adviser with Canada's mission to the United Nations in New York, initially joined the government last year as chief of staff to Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef.
Guy Gallant, a spokesman for Minister MacAulay, said by e-mail that the chief of staff "will be abiding by all of the guidelines set forward."
Mr. Gallant said: "This includes a conflict of interest screen in order to abstain from any participation in matters or decisions related to Burnbrae Holdings or its subsidiaries."
Mr. Gallant added that Ms. McFall "comes from a strong agricultural background and is a great asset to the office" and that she "has an extensive background as lawyer and businesswomen."
Chris Warkentin, the Conservative Party's agriculture critic, previously told The Globe and Mail that it would be difficult for Ms. McFall to do her job if she had to recuse herself from discussions about supply management and the egg industry. "She will know what her family is invested in and she will understand the ramifications of policy that she will be advising and responding to," he said.
Ms. McFall ran as a Liberal candidate in last year's federal election in the riding of Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, finishing as runner-up behind Tory incumbent Gord Brown.
International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland's chief of staff, Brian Clow, also faces an ethics screen after he reported to the Ethics Commissioner that his father, Graham Clow, is on the board of multinational mining company Barrick Gold Corp.
Mr. Clow has agreed to "abstain from any participation in any discussions or decision-making processes and any communication with government officials in relation to any matter or issue related to Barrick Gold Corp. and its subsidiaries and affiliates," according to his declaration.
Three cabinet minister also face ethics screens, including Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who must not deal with Morneau Shepell, the human resources company that he worked for, founded by his father. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould must abstain from issues related to First Nations and other indigenous communities that have business dealings with her husband's KaLoNa Group, and Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc cannot have official dealings with his friend James D. Irving, a shipping and energy business magnate in New Brunswick.