High Park Group (HPG)

Background

The High Park Group (HPG) describes itself as a Toronto-based “public affairs firm,” that has been in operation since 2001. HPG’s roster of clients includes large corporations, industry associations and not-for-profit organizations.¹

In 2007, DeSmog found that two of the the Directors sitting on the board of Natural Resources Stewardship Project were also senior executives of the High Park Group. They included former HPG president Timothy Egan and NRSP Executive Director Tom Harris. Timothy Egan urged Tom Harris to start the NRSP in order to lobby the government on climate change. NRSP, unlike the High Park Group, would be able to lobby without declaring its funding sources.² ³

According to the High Park Group’s website, “We have advocated for the needs of a broad range of Canadian and international companies in the areas of natural gas, nuclear, mining and hydropower, among others. Through projects we have worked on with industry associations in the energy and natural resources sector, we have helped shape the direction of regulatory reform of environmental legislation and energy policy.”⁴

Stance on Climate Change

The Natural Resources Stewardship Project, of which HPG has been closely connected to, believed that “Global climate change is primarily a natural phenomenon and so governments should focus on solving environmental problems over which we have influence (air, land and water pollution being obvious examples).”⁵

Funding

According to a December, 2016 search of the Lobbyists Registration System, Government of Canada, the High Park Group has been a registered lobbyist for numerous energy and natural resource companies including the following:⁶

Canadian Electricity Association
Canadian Gas Association
Association of Canadian Search Employment and Staffing Services (ACSESS) – Ottawa Chapter
Areva Canada Inc. (The Areva Group is the world’s largest nuclear power company)
Arise Technologies Corporation
Jyoti Structures Limited
Cepa (Canadian Energy Pipeline Association)
Transcanada Corporation
Canadian Coalition Against Terror
Golden Band Resources Inc.
National Airlines Council Of Canada
Algonquin Power Development
Columbia Power Corporation
Canadian Hydropower Association
Macdonald Dettwiler And Associates Ltd.
Encana Corporation

Key People

The HPG appears to have two parallel websites (here, and here), one of which may be out-of-date. Their more recent site lists only one team member:⁷ ⁸

Patricia Armstrong — President

Whereas the other website has listed a range of team members over the years:

Name	2006	2007	2008	2009	2016	Position
Bernadette Coren	Y	Y	Y	Y		Senior Associates
Carolyn Foster				Y	Y	Project Co-ordinator
Catherine Mathie				Y		Associates
Christopher Mahon			Y	Y		Associates
David Tingle				Y	Y	Associates
Jean d’Cruz	Y		Y			Office Manager
Julio Lagos	Y					Director, Regulatory Affairs
Kara Johnson		Y	Y	Y	Y	Directors
Kathleen McGinnis	Y	Y	Y	Y		Directors
Marlo Lair	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	President
Maureen Cassidy			Y	Y	Y	Senior Associates
Michael Connell			Y	Y	Y	Directors
Patrick Brown			Y	Y	Y	Senior Associates
Sheryl Saperia				Y		Senior Associates
Susan J. Trites			Y	Y	Y	Office Manager
Timothy M. Egan	Y	Y	Y	Y		President
Tom Harris	Y					Director, Ottawa Operations

Actions

2010

The Globe and Mail reports that the High Park Group was commissioned by the department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to gather industry and business observations about the habitat protection provisions of the Fisheries Act.⁹

According to the Globe and Mail, future adjustments to the bill, which some ecologists called “the biggest setback to conservation law in more than 50 years,” may have been influenced by wording offered by industry associations.¹⁰

The HPG had consulted 23 organizations including the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA), the Canadian Hydropower Association (CHA) and the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce (SKCC), all which “roundly criticized the law.”¹¹

May 2006

Tim Ball admitted that the High Park Group had “brought me in and set me up in a room to give a talk and present my views” on climate change. The following is from the interview between Tim Ball and the Ottawa Citizen, as reported at Deltoid:¹² ¹³

TB: The High Park Group brought me in and set me up in a room to give a talk and present my views.
Q: You didn’t get paid for those speeches?
TB: Oh I get paid of course.
Q: Did you ever look into where the conference got their money from?
TB: I don’t know.
Q: You got paid yesterday to speak?
TB: Yes.
Q: But you don’t know who paid you?
TB: The High Park Group paid me. I don’t know who paid them.
Q: Which is a public relations group?
TB: I have no idea where they get their money from. … I make a point of not trying to find out who’s paying me. I don’t care.

High Park Group Contact & Location

As of May 23, 2016 the High Park Group was located at the following addresses:¹⁴

Toronto Office:

303 Jane Street
Toronto, Ontario M6S 3Z3
(416) 535-2815 [phone]
(416) 531-4769 [fax]

Ottawa Office:

130 Albert Street, Suite 912
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G4
(613) 231-5666 [phone]

http://www.highparkgroup.com/