Pat Pimm’s history with ALC not taken into account

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A report by B.C.'s Conflict of Interest Commissioner examining former agriculture minister Pat Pimm's involvement in a farmland decision makes it clear he did nothing wrong.

But to get to that exoneration Commissioner Paul Fraser appears not to have considered the full political backstory. And he dismisses as unwarranted the concerns of Richard Bullock, chair of the Agricultural Land Commission.

The review, released last week, focused on an application by Terry McLeod to withdraw land from the Agricultural Land Reserve to develop rodeo grounds in Fort St. John.

The ALC initially rejected that bid, but when Mr. McLeod wanted a second look, Mr. Bullock and staff went for an on-site visit in May, 2013.

Mr. Pimm, the local MLA, showed up unannounced. He told Mr. Fraser that he was just at the meeting to support a local constituent.

Mr. Bullock testified that he was shocked by Mr. Pimm's attendance and felt that "the heat was on."

Mr. Fraser said he found nothing inappropriate about Mr. Pimm representing a constituent as that's an MLA's job.

The report, however, plays down the fact that Mr. Pimm wasn't just any MLA. He was an MLA with a history of battering the ALC and within a week would become the minister of agriculture, with plans to dismantle the ALC.

In his review, Mr. Fraser does not mention the scorching e-mails Mr. Pimm wrote in July, 2012.

In an exchange with Bill Bennett, a powerful minister who had long been critical of the ALC and who was crafting legislation to reform it, Mr. Pimm complained about how he had been blocked from lobbying Mr. Bullock.

"Every time I try to contact Mr. Bullock, I am told that he is an arm's-length body and for me to get the hell out of his hair. Who the hell is running the province anyway?" wrote Mr. Pimm in an e-mail obtained and published by The Globe and Mail.

Mr. Bennett complained the ALC wasn't moving fast enough on requests to remove land from the Agricultural Land Reserve for "other job-creating, tax-paying activities" such as an RV park.

Mr. Pimm replied to everyone on the e-mail chain (including Mr. Bullock) saying: "Mr. Bullock seems to be able to tell a great story but to this point I have not seen any delivery. Here is an opportunity to actually muster up some support for our team but instead we will ignore it and go out and find some way to give the Indians more money, which doesn't get me one vote! I am sick of this kind of nonsense."

Given that background, it's not surprising Mr. Bullock felt pressured when Mr. Pimm showed up at the McLeod meeting. But Mr. Fraser dismissed his concerns, saying Mr. Pimm didn't make any demands at the meeting.

"I got the message by him showing up," insisted Mr. Bullock.

Mr. Fraser also dismissed concerns that Mr. Pimm's constituency office had improperly written to the ALC on June 6, 2013 inquiring about the McLeod decision.

Mr. Fraser said that kind of contact was okay for an MLA. Stricter rules prohibiting such contact would have applied had Mr. Pimm been in cabinet – but he didn't became a minister until June 7.

Mr. Fraser rejected Mr. Bullock's view that later e-mails from the minister's staff were inappropriately trying to get the decision in advance. Instead, he accepted the staff's version, which was that the e-mails merely asked for the decision when it was released.

In his ruling, Mr. Fraser says in dealing with independent bodies such as the ALC, MLAs "should be sensitive to the political context and whether there are broader issues that would make their involvement contentious or improper."

That's good advice – but Mr. Fraser seems to have ignored it himself by failing to fully examine Mr. Pimm's actions in the context of the attacks he and others in government had been making on the ALC.