Liberal insider says he won't arrange meetings for clients

A member of the transition team for premier-designate Shawn Graham says he won't arrange meetings between clients and cabinet ministers when he returns to work with a Saint John communications firm.

Doug Tyler said he may be doing "government relations" work for Revolution Strategy's private-sector clients after the Liberals are sworn in Oct. 3.

"That could very well be," he said. "There's all kinds of firms that do different kinds of government relations."

'I find in New Brunswick generally people are pretty engaging. They don't usually have to hire someone to arrange a meeting.' -Doug Tyler

However, hesaid he doesn't plan to use his politicalconnections to arrange meetings for clients with government ministers.

Tyler, who served as a minister in the Frank McKenna government, said that doesn't happen in New Brunswick politics, in his experience.

"I find in New Brunswick generally people are pretty engaging," he said. "They don't usually have to hire someone to arrange a meeting. At least, it was my experience when I was a minister that that wasn't the case ... So no, that's not really a role that I'll be too engaged with."

When Tylerworked as lobbyist in Ottawa, he was legally requiredto publicly disclose who his clients were and which departments he was lobbying.

No such regulations exist in New Brunswick, but outgoing Premier Bernard Lord said he had planned to bring in such a law had he won the election.

"There's some proposals to have new legislation and regulation to protect the people of New Brunswick from lobbying firms and to make sure everything's out in the open,"he said.

Lord said the Tories would probably push for such a law as the Official Opposition.