A quartet of high-profile former political insiders from New Brunswick's two main political parties are going into business together as consultants.

The four partners in Atlantic Strategies Group, including a former Liberal premier and a former Progressive Conservative finance minister, say they can fill a void left by government to help lure employers to the province.

"If I was to describe it in a sentence, we're privatizing Opportunities New Brunswick," said co-owner Andrew Dawson, referring to the provincial government's economic development agency.

"That was the whole genesis of the four of us getting together — to provide those services to the private sector."

'Role to play'

Former Liberal cabinet minister Donald Arseneault added: "We can't keep saying government's going to do all that work. We all have a role to play."

The four principals in Atlantic Strategies are:

• Shawn Graham, New Brunswick's Liberal premier from 2006 to 2010 and now an international business consultant.
  
• Norm Betts, a business professor, Progressive Conservative cabinet minister from 1999 to 2003, and former board member of NB Power.
  
• Arseneault, a Liberal MLA from 2003 to 2017 who held several cabinet portfolios in the Graham and Gallant governments.
  
• Dawson, a one-time executive assistant to a PC cabinet minister, former construction union official and businessperson who hired Arseneault as a lobbyist for his union two years ago.
  

Dawson and Arseneault spoke about the company in a 30-minute interview, saying they will offer clients services such as "business development, strategic advice, networking."

Betts and Graham could not be reached for comment.

Built 'relationships'

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin said he hopes that the new firm will not lead to some potential investors in the province getting "special treatment" thanks to the connections the four owners have built up over the years.

He said the four men have the potential to "sway [decisions] away from the public interest" to benefit some employers.


Arseneault said he established "a lot of relationships" during a decade and a half in politics.

"If I can take the experience I've built over the years, over the last 15 years … so be it, if it means moving forward in this province."
But they both say the firm will go beyond existing requirements for transparency and will engage in lobbying "as little as possible."

Lobbying, the practice of using connections and experience to broker access to elected officials and influence their decisions, is controversial.

Not just lobbying

Arseneault left politics in 2017, earlier than planned, after accepting a part-time lobbying job in Ottawa while sitting as a backbench MLA.

He said lobbying is not "the gist" of what the new company plans to do.

"If somebody wants a meeting with a government official or minister, anybody can do that,"

Arseneault said. "You don't have to be Andrew Dawson, Norm Betts, Don Arseneault or Shawn Graham to do that."
Dawson added: "If a client is just interested in paying somebody to get a meeting with a politician, that's not something we're interested in."


Even so, arranging meetings could be "a small part of the big picture," according to Dawson, so they're registering as lobbyists provincial and federally.

The four partners wrote a letter to acting integrity commissioner Charles Murray last week to outline their plans, promising to go beyond what lobbying and conflict-of-interest laws require.

"We have no problem being open and transparent about it," Arseneault said.

Murray would not comment Monday on their plans.

Filling a gap

Dawson said that with Premier Blaine Higgs unenthusiastic about corporate subsidies and Opportunities New Brunswick recently eliminating 24 positions, the four consultants can fill the gap by advising companies on setting up shop in the province.

"There was a void there in the marketplace," Dawson said. "There are services that the private sector is willing to pay for. If the government proceeds to create the environment for economic growth, what can we do as private citizens to facilitate it?"

But he said the company would be selective.

"If Malcolm Bricklin were to land here today with his idea, we'd send him away quite quickly."

The company already has about 10 clients in sectors including energy, cannabis, health care, labour and transportation.  One of them is ARC Nuclear, a business hoping to manufacture small, modular nuclear reactors for NB Power.

New jobs

Dawson and Arseneault recently left their positions with Canada's Building Trades Unions, the labour group that hired Arseneault in 2017. The two men are longtime acquaintances.

Though the province's lobbying and conflict-of-interest laws didn't prohibit Arseneault's 2017 hiring while he remained an MLA, then-premier Brian Gallant said the perception of a conflict was a problem.

He pushed Arseneault to give up the job or face expulsion from the Liberal caucus.
Instead, Arseneault resigned as an MLA. The Liberals later amended the law to ban sitting MLAs from working part time as lobbyists.

Former MLAs are also banned from lobbying for a year after they leave office, a period that has elapsed for Arseneault.