OTTAWA – The new Federal Accountability Act may cost Elizabeth Roscoe her job, say to reports out of Ottawa.
According to The Hill Times newspaper, a series of new amendments introduced last week makes it virtually impossible for anyone who has worked in government in any way to take any kind of lobbying position for five full years.
Elizabeth Roscoe, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ senior vice-president of policy and public affairs has become something of an Ottawa flashpoint on the issue. She worked for a few weeks on the transition team when Prime Minister Steven Harper was taking office earlier this year and was hired in April by the CAB, since she has a long history in the communications industry and with the Conservative party.
In fact, the CAB touted her connections in a communiqué to members that month, which angered Conservatives and opposition MPs as well, says the report.
Prior to the CAB, Roscoe’s most recent job in communications and media was as senior vice-president external affairs for the Canadian Cable Television Association, a position she left in 2003 to join Carleton University as executive director, partnership development. Prior to her stint at the CCTA, she was VP government relations for Shaw Communications.
A CAB spokesman said Roscoe was declining to comment on the matter at this time.
One wonders about the affect this act will have on government institutions like the CRTC. How would the Commission be able to attract new commissioners or other talented media and telecom people to jobs with the CRTC or in other government portfolios if those folks knew they had to wait five years to ply their trade when they left government?
In media or telecom, for example, just think of what’s gone on in the past five years. Could anyone apply 2001 skill sets to the media world of 2006? Not likely.
– Greg O’Brien
