Ethics complaint made against former fisheries ambassador

The federal ethics commissioner says she will look into a complaint launched by Newfoundland and Labrador’s Opposition Liberal fisheries critic.

Jim Bennett filed the complaint earlier this week asking commissioner Mary Dawson to review the activities of Loyola Sullivan, the former fisheries ambassador.

Sullivan served four years as Canada’s ambassador for fisheries conservation before stepping down last spring to run for the federal Conservatives.

Sullivan lost, and joined Ocean Choice International as a company vice-president after the May vote. His brothers, Martin and Blaine, are OCI’s president and chief operating officer.

Bennett contends that federal rules require a 12 month “cooling off period” before high-ranking officials shift to the private sector.

“I’m asking that there be a review done to see if he’s violated these guidelines,” Bennett told CBC’s Fisheries Broadcast.

Sullivan — a former provincial PC party leader who served as Newfoundland and Labrador’s finance minister from 2003 to 2006 — declined interview requests. He said he deals only with internal OCI issues and called Bennett’s claims “too foolish to talk about.”

OCI has found itself in the media spotlight over the past year.

In 2011, Ocean Choice and the Prince Edward Island government became embroiled in lawsuits and counter-suits after the company closed a processing plant on the island.

This month, OCI hired replacement workers to crew a company vessel, the Newfoundland Lynx. Police were called in to enforce a court order ending a union blockade of the ship.

And in December, the company shuttered fish plants in Marystown and Port Union. OCI announced it would seek long-term processing exemptions from the Newfoundland and Labrador government, in return for nearly doubling the workforce at its Fortune facility and making those jobs year-round. The province ultimately said no.

"This is a vertically-integrated international corporation that is seeking to take the resource of the people of Canada and ship it unprocessed to China, which is a country (with whom) presumably (Sullivan) helped represent the nation," Bennett said.

"Clearly, that’s what the guidelines are designed to stop. So people can’t be a public office holder, and then turn it to a private advantage within less than 12 months of leaving that position."

A spokesperson for the federal ethics commissioner told CBC News that Sullivan’s role as ambassador falls into the category of “public office holder” under the conflict of interest act.

According to Section 35 (2) of that act: "No former reporting public office holder shall make representations whether for remuneration or not, for or on behalf of any other person or entity to any department, organization, board, commission or tribunal with which he or she had direct and significant official dealings during the period of one year immediately before his or her last day in office."