OPTICS, PERCEPTION & CONFLICT OF INTEREST

I received a tutorial yesterday in regards to the Municipal Conflict Of Interest Act (MCIA). My overall impression is that it is almost expected that during a municipal councillor's four year term that at some point a financial/pecuniary conflict of interest will occur. Essentially the councillor declares the conflict and avoids either debating or voting on the issue that he has a conflict with. End of story and no big deal.

However when you are dealing with for example a committee of council I believe that things become much murkier. An environmental committee of council may be in a confrontational mode with a local polluter. Examples abound such as Safety-Kleen in Breslau, Ontario; Northstar Aerospace in Cambridge, Ontario; Chemtura in Elmira, Ontario; Ciba-Geigy (Novartis) again in Cambridge. Here you have a committee (of council) essentially focused on cleaning up groundwater and or cleaning up the local polluter's site. All these industries mentioned have hired consultants and unsurprisingly their consultants have no problem minimizing problems and especially minimizing (financially) the solutions.

Now under these circumstances how would John Q. Public react to the news that a committee member charged with the responsibility of representing the public interest; also had a personal financial interest with the polluter? This personal financial interest could be as minor as a small contract for renovations to a building on site or as significant as assisting with an on-site cleanup of a contaminated area. Either way I see a potential conflict between the member's public interest and their private interest.

This particular conflict of interest relates to optics and perception. Once your environmental committee has tacitly approved (with the strong urging of the municipality) the principle of members having business dealings with the polluter that they are supposedly confronting, being O.K.; the door to abuse is wide open. What prevents an unscrupulous polluting industry from "rewarding" committee members less confrontational and more cooperative behaviour with lucrative contracts? Essentially nothing. In my opinion the committee should have absolutely prohibited any such financial dealings/contracts. In the future if a member wishes to do business with the polluting company fine; but step down from your position on the environmental committee.