Former Ford staffer cuts ties with town after lobbying plan used to ‘embarrass’ government
Global News
The town of Brighton, Ont., had planned to hire Atlas Strategic Advisors to help it lobby for help with upgrades to its water treatment facility worth tens of millions of dollars.
A small town in eastern Ontario has seen its plans to hire a well-connected lobbying firm to help it net infrastructure funding fall apart after comments from councillors about “backroom” conversations with am administration that “talks to their friends” were used to “embarrass” the Ford government.
The town of Brighton, Ont., between Cobourg and Belleville, had planned to hire Atlas Strategic Advisors to help it lobby for help with upgrades to its water treatment facility worth tens of millions of dollars.
Comments made by councillors during a meeting, however, were used by opposition parties at Queen’s Park to suggest the Ford government favoured insiders.
The plan was quickly cancelled.
Brighton’s mayor — who maintains that lobbyists can achieve different objectives to politicians — said the comments were “regrettable,” after spending much of Thursday apologizing to the provincial government.
At a Monday, May 6, meeting of Brighton council, city staff recommended retaining Atlas Strategic Advisors to push its expensive wastewater upgrade project.
The town was applying for funding through a provincial grant pool worth a total of $825 million. Staff suggested that with “many municipalities applying” for the funding, it had to make “extensive” efforts to ensure it secured its share.
Bureaucrats recommended hiring Atlas, which is run by a former Ford government staffer, Amin Massoudi. Among other credentials, Massoudi served as Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s principal secretary from June 2019 to August 2022 and as deputy chief of staff for a year before that.
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