A look behind the 2009-2010 hiring debacle at Enterprise Cape Breton Corp.
photo credit: Reuters/Canadian Press
John Lynn, CEO of Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC) may have been set up to fail. But the ambiguous wording in one paragraph of public sector integrity commissioner Mario Dion’s 2014 Report into Lynn’s “inappropriate” hiring practices at ECBC shows that Lynn may have had reason to believe he was acting within his mandate.
Lynn was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ECBC by long-time friend, Peter MacKay, through a 2008 Order in Council. MacKay was then Minister for ACOA which oversees ECBC. Lynn was a constituent of MacKay’s Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough riding.
He probably did not foresee his very public firing in 2014.
Controversial hires
It was a twisted web Lynn wove and it smacked of patronage. The four executives hired by Lynn at ECBC in 2009 were Ken Langley, a former chief of staff to former Nova Scotia premier John Buchanan (of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party); Allan Murphy, who ran for the Conservatives in 2011 and was former chief of staff to Peter MacKay; Robert MacLean, a former executive assistant to Cecil Clark when Clark was a Progressive Conservative member of the Nova Scotia government; and Nancy Baker, who worked for Peter MacKay when he was Minister for ACOA.
The investigation
The investigation into Lynn’s hiring practices at ECBC was initiated by the federal Liberal Atlantic caucus which accused the Conservatives and ECBC of blatant patronage in its appointment of its four executive officers.
Liberal MP for Cape Breton-Canso, Rodger Cuzner, says his party also called for a second investigation into Conservative hiring practices by the Public Service Commission, to ensure ”all public servants must act with integrity and accountability and be perceived as doing so”.
Dion released his Report in May, 2014.
Dion found that ”relating to Mr. John Lynn, the Chief Executive Officer of the [ECBC], I found that although Mr. Lynn had the authority to appoint four individuals without a formal process that he nonetheless seriously breached ECBC’s own code of conduct which resulted in my making this finding of wrongdoing.”
Dion called the ”Conservative political pedigrees” of the four executives “noteworthy”. All four had “undeniable links to the Conservative Party” and MacKay – though no fault was found by the commission on MacKay’s part.
In a strongly worded report, Dion said that “Mr. Lynn’s actions were not only unfair but also improper, and they [did]not stand up to the test of public scrutiny. Mr. Lynn seriously breached ECBC’s code of conduct…when he appointed four individuals with political ties to ECBC executive positions without demonstrating that the appointments were merit-based.”
“The unilateral hiring of these four individuals within the federal public sector by Mr. Lynn creates a perception of political patronage, and contributes to my finding of wrongdoing…”
Lynn was fired as he was hired, by Order in Council.
Baker’s job at ECBC was filled by MacKay friend, Allan Murphy.
Who is Nancy Baker?
Of the four executives hired by Lynn, Baker is the anomaly. She finished her three-year term with ECBC and slid away unscathed into her new position as policy advisor to Justice Minister Peter MacKay. And she didn’t have to move far: she had never left Ottawa for the lovely isle. In fact, many people working at ECBC did not know her position existed.
The press – and federal government – have been quiet about Baker. But why the difference between her career path and the others? Being out of sight in Ottawa likely helped. As well, her job as director of government relations and advocacy for ECBC had never been advertised. She was in essence, invisible.
Although Baker worked for MacKay at ACOA, he would not have been able to ensure her position once the ACOA file moved to New Brunswick MP Keith Ashfield in 2008.
Cuzner says “the appointment to ECBC was a safe haven for Baker until something came up in Ottawa”.
Baker began her political career as a staffer to (then) Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley MP, Bill Casey, in his Ottawa office in 1993. Baker worked briefly for the provincial Conservatives during a break in Casey’s tenure, then returned to work for him.
Casey effuses about Baker and describes her as a “super person”. He says she has an excellent perspective on issues, especially relating to people, and she was an astute employee who insisted that everything be done by the book.
Casey also says Baker was well respected on the Hill and he always valued her opinion. When interviewed, Casey refrained from commenting about the ECBC investigation and did not indicate that he had been following the story.
Baker has a strong Conservative pedigree. Her father, Walter Baker, was a popular Member of Parliament from Grenville-Carleton (now Nepean-Carleton) in Ottawa. He was elected to Parliament four times in 1970, 1974, 1979 and 1980.
Walter Baker was also the impetus behind many government issues that are still debated today, in particular, the first Freedom of Information Bill (Bill C-15). That died with the defeat of Prime Minister Joe Clark but much of Baker’s original Bill became part of the current Access to Information Act.
Baker’s career trajectory continues to soar, seemingly unmarred by the investigation into the ECBC hiring scandal.
Omission or commission?
Did the federal Conservatives word Lynn’s mandate loosely in order to distance themselves from public scrutiny? His authority with respect to hiring practices is ambiguous.
In his report, Dion noted that Lynn did have ”the authority to appoint four individuals without a formal process…”[emphasis added]
Cuzner says it is almost impossible to hold governments accountable in these cases because “these arrangements are done with a wink and a nudge. There is never a paper trail on hiring.”
Lynn’s mandate may have been doomed from the start but in the end, he is the only player who was harshly treated by the integrity commission. The people who put him in that position walked away twice: when he hired his executives and when he was investigated.
Baker seems to be cautiously coddled within the Conservative Party family but when the situation got messy, no one had John Lynn’s back.