The Ottawa Citizen
March 28, 2000

Minister defends report, denies corporation meddled with findings
(Excerpt)

International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew is standing by an independent report reviewing the Export Development Corporation even though recently released government documents indicate the Crown corporation influenced the final draft of the report.

Mr. Pettigrew said yesterday in the lobby of the House of Commons that the Gowlings report, which was performed by the well-known law firm Gowlings Strathy and Henderson, acknowledges at the beginning that it had consulted “closely” with both the EDC and his department.

He dismissed suggestions that government documents obtained through the Access to Information Act show that the EDC and other government officials obtained important changes to the report before it was officially submitted to the government in July 1999.

The report, and subsequent recommendations by a House of Commons committee, will form the basis of legislative changes affecting the EDC.

The changes are expected to be introduced by the government as early as this May.

The documents reveal that a draft of the Gowlings report was given to government officials for revision before it was finalized and made public.

It also indicates that early recommendations on transparency, human rights and the environment were opposed by the EDC and eventually changed in favour of the Crown corporation.

Mr. Pettigrew rejected this interpretation of the documents.

“The EDC has been consulted, but the Gowlings report has been conducted quite independently. The EDC input as a stakeholder has been on the Net for a number of months,” said Mr. Pettigrew. “So it is quite public what EDC as a stakeholder has actually put forward.”

The EDC has been the target of criticism from environmental and human rights groups that object to some of the projects supported by secret government loans. The Crown corporation promotes Canadian exports by providing financing to foreign buyers for purchases of Canadian products.

The EDC’s apparent thin skin to criticisms can be found in the summary of one memo.