Premier dismisses concerns about Jean Chrétien meeting as 'noise'

Premier Stephen McNeil on Tuesday dismissed questions about a recent controversial meeting with former prime minister Jean Chrétien as just "noise."

The premier met with Chrétien last Wednesday, a day after the former prime minister had told reporters he'd be meeting with McNeil to discuss a proposal to bring a container terminal to Sydney harbour.

Last week, McNeil denied it was a lobbying effort, and said the two chatted about economic development, what it was like to come from a large family, and other shared stories.

On Friday, a union activist formally complained to the Registrar of Lobbyists, accusing Chrétien of having lobbied the premier without first registering as a lobbyist.

Interim PC leader Karla MacFarlane again raised the issue during Tuesday's question period.

"There is not a reasonable-thinking person in this province who believes Mr. Chrétien came to do anything other than lobby this government for his clients," MacFarlane said. "He even announced it himself the day before.

"The premier claims to be running a transparent government but Nova Scotians are kept in the dark," she said.

Nova Scotians not worried, McNeil says

McNeil said he would continue to meet with people who are looking for "opportunities in our province" and suggested Nova Scotians were not concerned with the Chrétien meeting, given the conversations he had over the past weekend.

"Not a single Nova Scotian raised the issue of about a meeting with the former prime minister," McNeil shot back. "And what they've asked me is don't be distracted by the noise on the other side."

He rejected out of hand a request from MacFarlane that he commit to making public his agenda so that Nova Scotians know who he is meeting with and when.

Until McNeil ended the practice early in his first mandate, previous NDP, PC and Liberal premiers publicly released to reporters a week-at-a-glance schedule — a day-by-day outline of important meetings or public events for the coming week.  

Outside the legislative chamber, McNeil once again defended his decision to end the decades-long practice. He said some meetings needed to remain private and some people he met with didn't want it known they were meeting with him.

"They don't necessarily want to be put under scrutiny," he said. 

"Anyone who wants to meet with the premier of Nova Scotia, to provide an opportunity, to look at if there are business opportunities, I'm more than happy to do that," he told reporters. "Then they don't have to worry about, quite frankly, that they're going to end up on the front page of the newspaper."

Opposition criticism

Asked if he thought he was less transparent than his predecessors for not releasing regular week-at-a-glance notes, McNeil called that merely an "opinion."

"I don't share your view that I'm less transparent," he told one reporter. "When it's required and it's involving the taxpayers, I certainly tell them all."

MacFarlane said if McNeil wants to claim his government is transparent, then he needs to prove it.

NDP Leader Gary Burrill characterized McNeil's use of the term "noise" to describe questions about his meeting with Chrétien as emblematic of premiers's attitude toward any criticism.

"I've gathered what noise is, from his point of view, is anything that doesn't accord with his picture of the world," he said.