Irwin hiring hush-hush at Prime Minister's office

Page 32

Former Indian Affairs Minister Ronald Irwin has been retained by the Prime Minister's office to act as a "special assistant to the Prime Minister."

A press officer confirmed that Irwin is working full-time for the government and has an office in the Langevin Block on Parliament Hill. Details about the former minister's duties or salary were not disclosed. Details about the hiring process were also not provided, but it was disclosed that Irwin is not collecting his parliamentary pension while he is on the Privy Council's political staff.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien has about eight personal advisors on staff. They include former External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp who fills the advisory position for an annual salary of $1. That salary, however, is not typical.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's office would neither confirm nor deny that Irwin will advise Chretien on Aboriginal issues.

Assembly of First Nations and Department of Indian Affairs sources say Irwin's job could be to advise the prime minister - and perhaps his own replacement in Indian Affairs, Jane Stewart - about relationships with First Nations. Irwin retired from politics after the last federal election was called. Stewart was named to replace him on June 11.

At the AFN general assembly in Vancouver, then-National Chief Ovide Mercredi told Windspeaker that he was having similar problems in obtaining information about Irwin's new duties.

"I'm going to be looking into that," he said, before his defeat by Phil Fontaine.

Some AFN analysts fear that Irwin's continued presence in Ottawa is a sign that many of his policies - which they compared to the hated 1969 White Paper on Indian Affairs - will live on. They worry that the AFN will continue to be side-stepped by Indian Affairs.

Informed non-Aboriginal sources in Ottawa say Irwin, a long-time Liberal party loyalist and close personal associate of the prime minister, may have been recruited to help Chretien deal with challenges to his leadership from inside the Cabinet, most notably from Finance Minister Paul Martin.

Other Ottawa sources are outraged by the appointment, saying that whatever Irwin's duties may be, they are going to be in the service of his party rather than the people of Canada, and they aren't going to come cheap.

The Official Opposition Reform Party critic for Indian Affairs, Mike Scott, was not aware of the appointment until informed by this newspaper.

"I had no idea, to be honest with you," he said, when asked to comment on the appointment. "But that's absolutely typical of the Liberals. They have a habit of not giving us a heads-up on these appointments. I'm certainly not surprised, though."

Scott believes Irwin's hiring smacks of patronage.

"The Liberals have a long history of rewarding allegiance with some kind of posting. What it signifies, I don't know. It could be that the new minister needs some help with the huge task of trying to understand the portfolio," Scott said.

Irwin could not be reached for comment.