KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan is known for his public support of the Goldboro LNG project, and had been the presumed chief cheerleader of Pieridae’s ask for a billion dollars in aid from the federal government.
So it came as quite a surprise to this veteran Pieridae watcher that the most lobbied federal politician is actually the Fisheries Minister, who is not known to have ever said a word in public about the Goldboro project.
Minister Jordan’s Ottawa office has been lobbied six times in the last year, twice with the Minister herself participating. That is what shows in the federal Registry of Lobbyists.
It is hard to say how many times the Minister has been lobbied without Pieridae registering the event as required. Pieridae CEO Alfred Sorensen has never registered and is their number one salesperson. One backbencher MP with four registered lobby visits said “Alfred” has called him twice.
For at least four months before Pieridae’s first registered lobbying event in May 2020, Sorensen had been discussing financial assistance with Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan and other government officials.
When Sorensen spoke of this publicly, and still nearly a month before their first registered lobbying event- he said, “The Trudeau government has been actively discussing with us what our requirements are.” When asked on that investor’s conference call to specify, he said discussions were for about a billion dollars in aid.
With Fisheries Minister Jordan also playing a featured role, it may well bethat she has also got the personal pitches from Alfred Sorensen- albeit without the legally required registration.
Bernadette Jordan’s South Shore constituents have unfortunately not had the privilege of the same open door to discuss Pieridae’s request of a billion dollars for Goldboro LNG. Quite the opposite. Constituent Al Heubach has since early April made numerous calls to Jordan’s Bridgewater office asking to speak to her about the Goldboro LNG project.
Twice staffers there said that they did not know anything about the project, but would find out and get back to him. This never happened. A month later Mr. Heubach received the following puzzling email from Jordan’s Ottawa office:
Hello Al,
Thank you for reaching out. My apologies for the delay in responding.
Goldboro LNG is a proposed provincial LNG facility. The related proposed pipeline work has yet to be filed with the Canada Energy Regulator. When it does, a fair and thorough assessment process will occur.
Mr. Heubach had never inquired about pipelines. But the topic of pipelines needed to supply the LNG plant is much discussed among government MPs, and touched on by them in rare public comments about Goldboro LNG.
Note that at this point Jordan and her ministerial staff have had numerous consultations over several months with Pieridae, had considerable internal discussion of the billion dollar ask that had been public for two months, and with inquiries from constituents for over a month.
Wide open door for the climate killing corporate beggar, one weird email for constituents.
See also: International coalition asks Germany to halt support for Goldboro LNG mega project
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Update on that weird email to the constituent from Jordan’s office. Joan Baxter in the Examiner did a very detailed account of the lobbying. She sent a query to Natural Resources Canada, and the “reply” was the same- word for word.