Loblaws lobbyists appear to have donated to and maintained close relationships with the Liberal before receiving a controversial $12 million grant for energy efficient refrigerators.
Loblaws lobbyists appear to have donated to and maintained close relationships with the Liberal before receiving a controversial $12 million grant for energy efficient refrigerators.
The grant is considered controversial as Loblaws was one of many companies involved in a 14-year bread price-fixing scheme which cost the government more than $300 million in taxes alone, although the parent company notified regulators in order to receive immunity from most damages.
According to a damning new report from the National Observer, “two Loblaws lobbyists, one of which helped steer the company towards a controversial $12-million federal grant to reduce the energy consumption of their refrigerators, also donated frequently to the Liberal Party and attended a partisan fundraising event with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”
Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna and two of her senior officials “also met with one of the lobbyists representing Loblaw Companies Ltd., soon after the grant program had opened to businesses,” according to the National Observer article.
Loblaws has said that the grant they company received has no connection their well-connected lobbyists.
Interestingly, the report published by the National Observer is damning not because it is new information per se, rather it appears damning because it reinforces an image that is becoming all too common in the eyes of many Canadians.
Just one week ago, for example, the Liberal party refunded the tickets of a marijuana CEO who had attended a fundraiser. Before that, a court ordered the lobbying Czar to take a new look at the vacation gift the Agha Khan provided Trudeau.
Perhaps most present when it comes to potentially improper lobbying though is the SNC-Lavalin case, where the PM, the PMO, and SNC-Lavalin lobbyists allegedly attempted to pressure the former AG to provide the firm with a deferred prosecution agreement.
With the government already dealing with so many lobbying problems, free falling in the polls, and seeing limited fundraising numbers, this most recent report
What do you think about the package provided to Loblaws and the presence of lobbyists? Join the conversation by commenting below!
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