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JOCELYNE LLOYD: Ministerial meddling seems common P.E.I. practice

A lot has been said this past week since it was revealed that Évangéline-Miscouche MLA Gilles Arsenault arranged for a donation to a community group in his district from a developer who wanted permission to carry out work on additional acreages of wetland.

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The matter has so far led to Arsenault’s ouster from cabinet and the Progressive Conservative caucus and was the subject of testy afternoons in the legislature.

Whether Arsenault facilitated the donation “with the best of intentions,” as he has repeated, and without wishing to “break rules or cause issues for our community, the organization, nor the developer” is being debated inside and outside the house. If there is any wrongdoing involved is in the hands of the provincial conflict of interest commissioner and any criminality will be up to the RCMP to decide. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

What I’m interested in, though, is what Arsenault is not in any trouble over.

According to a legal review of the situation by managing partner Murray Murphy of Stewart McKelvey, there was a lot of back and forth between the developer directly with the minister’s office in what was then called the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action.

For his review, Murphy interviewed Arsenault, as well as deputy minister for the department,........

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