Prior to the election campaign, Raitt was the president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Port Authority (TPA), a Canadian federal corporation that manages commerce, transportation (including the Toronto City Centre Airport) and recreation in the Toronto Harbour. She has also served as the TPA’s Corporate Secretary and General Counsel,[3] and harbourmaster (she was the first female harbourmaster of a Canadian port).[4]
Mismanagement allegationsThe TPA has been criticized for close connections to the Conservative party for both its paid lobbyists and directors.[5] Federal Transport Minister John Baird is facing allegations of ``political interference and ``coverup as part of a bid to bury complaints of mismanagement against his Conservative cabinet colleague, Lisa Raitt, in connection with her former job as head of the Toronto Port Authority.
New Democrat MP Olivia Chow laid out the charges at a news conference in Toronto, where she also called on Sheila Fraser, the federal auditor general, to conduct an audit of the port authority to investigate why Baird increased the membership of the board of directors from seven to nine - and why Raitt, while CEO of the authority, was allowed to run up almost $80,000 in travel and other expenses over two years when the organization was running a deficit.[6]
New details emerged in November 2009. A report by the Toronto Star detailed that Raitt signed off on her own expenses, including a trip to London, England against the wishes of then TPA chair Michele McCarthy, who refused to approve the expense. Expenses were reported as $30,000, when the actual money spent was $80,000.[7] This followed the finding that a staffer in Raitt's office at the TPA used TPA resources on Raitt's election campaign.[8]
On September 14, 2010, the Toronto Port Authority issued the results of their independent forensic review conducted by the Investigations & Forensic Services division of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in a news release. [9] The review was undertaken at the TPA’s request to investigate, among other things, specific allegations made by certain former members of the TPA Board of Directors in March and November 2009 and repeated by Chow which turned out to be false.
S.L.A.P.P. controversyIn her capacity as CEO of Toronto Port Authority, in 2006, Raitt initiated a rare political libel action against a citizen group, Community Air, that had criticized her. The Globe and Mail described TPA's multi-million dollar strategic lawsuit against public participation, as designed to prevent "the volunteer activists from making any more allegedly defamatory statements about the federal agency -- a category of speech, according to the wide-open statement of claim the authority filed in court last week, that would seem to include every public statement any of the activists has ever made in this hotly contested, thoroughly aired, public debate".[10] The suit was eventually settled out of court when Community Air agreed to retract its statements and apologize.[11]
Federal politicsIn September 2008, Raitt was appointed to run as the Conservative candidate in Halton against Liberal incumbent Garth Turner.[12] Turner was formerly a Conservative member but was suspended from the Conservative caucus in 2006 for breaching confidentiality. He later joined the Liberals after briefly sitting as an independent member.[13] A bitter campaign between Turner and Raitt ensued. Turner made public accusations of dirty tricks by the local Conservative association and Raitt, calling Raitt a "master of deceit."[14] Raitt made controversial comments about the North and global warming. At an October 6 meeting of the Oakville, Ontario, Chamber of Commerce, Raitt was on record cheering about the possibilities of increased tourism and shipping opportunities in the North, thanks to the melting polar ice cap.[14][15]
On October 14, 2008, Raitt defeated Turner by over 7,000 votes. Raitt was named to the Cabinet of Canada on October 30, 2008 as Minister of Natural Resources, one of eleven women named to the Cabinet.[16]
Secret documents left at news bureauOn June 2, 2009, CTV News reported that a folder of confidential and secret ministerial briefing documents had been left by Raitt or her staff at the CTV News Ottawa office for a week. CTV News chose to reveal the contents which listed the funding for the Chalk River nuclear reactor which had recently shut down, causing a shortage of medical radioisotopes. On June 3, the opposition parties demanded that the government fire Raitt or accept her resignation. Raitt claimed to have offered her resignation and that the offer was rejected by the Prime Minister. A ministerial aide, Raitt's 26-year-old director of communications, Jasmine MacDonnell, offered her resignation which was accepted.[17]
Some critics attempted to draw parallels to a similar occurrence in 2008 involving Maxime Bernier, who ultimately was forced to resign his cabinet post as Minister of Foreign Affairs after leaving sensitive documents pertaining to a NATO conference at the home of an ex-girlfriend. Speaking to reporters, the Prime Minister said that "Minister Raitt was working at the time. She was undertaking employment activity, ministerial activity in the company of her staff who were responsible for these documents, certainly for accounting for these documents later."[18] Addressing the parallel he added, "[i]n the case of Minister Bernier, his actions were much more personal in nature and that was the difference in the responsibility."[19]
Taped comments about radio isotope shortage Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Lisa Raitt radio isotope shortage tape
On June 8, 2009, CBC news online reported that a Nova Scotia court heard an argument to block the Halifax Chronicle-Herald from publishing a story about an audio recording involving Raitt. The injunction was denied.[20] On the audio tape, made on January 30, 2009 by the same aide who resigned on June 2, was a discussion between Raitt and the aide over the radioisotopes shortage. The judge ruled that the public interest over-rode the issue of confidentiality.[21]
On the tape, Raitt made comments on the radio isotope issue, describing it as "sexy ... Radioactive leaks. Cancer." and hard to control because it is "confusing to a lot of people".[21] Raitt also made comments on the parliamentary skills of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq:
"Oh, God, she's such a capable woman, but it's hard for her to come out of a co-operative government into this rough-and-tumble. She had a question in the House yesterday, or two days ago, that planked. I really hope she never gets anything hot."[21]
Raitt also made comments about Manitoba MP Joy Smith, who introduced a private member's bill on human trafficking:
"Speaking of career-limiting moves, I’m in shock that that MP, Joy Smith, brought forward private member’s legislation on human trafficking. She’s on Canada AM. And the reason being is that there’s no way any of us should be introducing anything around justice issues or finance issues right now. You just can’t touch those two things."[22]
