From Neal Hall, of the Vancouver Sun’s Nothing to See Here Department:

Kieran’s e-mail said he had been fishing that day with Paul Taylor, then deputy minister to finance minister Collins, and Kieran said he “got the real goods” on the B.C. Automobile Dealers Association.

[Lobbyist Brian] Kieran said in his e-mail that [Deputy Minister Paul] Taylor had talked to Glen Ringdall, then president of the association, who said Ringdall needed government relations and it would cost about $50,000 a year.

Kieran’s e-mail said they should offer to do the work for Ringdall for “$6,000 [a month] and be prepared to retreat to $5,000. It will be more than $50,000 but Glen doesn’t have many options…”

Elmhirst, a former ministerial assistant less than a month earlier, replied in an email: “Yah, well, I could come up with this kind of great intel too if I lived next door to a blabby deputy minister!“. . .

 “It appears Paul Taylor has a very cozy relationship with Pilothouse,” Bolton suggested to Brown.