LIBERALS: NDP FISHERIES MINISTER WAS IN CONFLICT OF INTEREST FOR SIX
Date: Monday January 11, 2010

(Halifax, NS) The Nova Scotia Liberal Caucus says that NDP cabinet minister Sterling Belliveau remained in contravention of the Ministerial Code of Conduct for six months after taking office and they are asking the province’s conflict of interest watchdog to take a second look.

Liberal finance critic Leo Glavine has sent a signed affidavit to Conflict of Interest Commissioner Justice Merlin Nunn, formally requesting a re-examination of Belliveau’s personal holdings and the circumstances that led to the sale of the Minister’s fishing boat through a loan board which he oversees.

“The Code of Conduct is very clear - a Minister of the Crown cannot retain a directorship of a private company,” explained Glavine. “We brought this to the attention of Premier Dexter back in September, yet it took six full months before the Fisheries Minister was removed as the president and director of Mr. Mussel’s Seafarms Limited in late December.”

Glavine says there are also concerns with how forthright the NDP government was when consulting with Justice Nunn on this conflict back in June.

“When Minister Belliveau sold his fishing vessel and license, he received nearly $600,000 from the Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Loan Board - a board which is entirely under the Minister’s purview and is funded with taxpayers’ dollars,” says Glavine. “What Belliveau failed to mention was that he himself had an outstanding loan with the Fisheries Board which would only be repaid by any new loan approved for the purchase of his license, his gear and his boat.”

During Question Period of the fall legislative session, Premier Dexter shrugged off the controversy as ‘a good deal’. Glavine says the Premier’s disregard is an example of the blatant double standard the NDP operates under - one set of rules for themselves and another for everyone else.

“As elected members, we are granted the trust of the people we represent,” concludes Glavine. “We believe Justice Nunn’s re-examination of this matter is in the public interest.”

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