Given the position that I held in the federal public service, I was subject to the Treasury Board directive on conflict of interest, as most are. I believe they term them positions designated to be high risk for conflict of interest.
What that directive states—and this is the process that I followed upon my departure—is that upon receipt of an offer of employment.... I should say that I did this way earlier than having the offer of employment. When I began thinking about getting an opportunity, I engaged with my values and ethics team immediately, who coached me through the entire process. That involves a discussion with the senior management team and finally culminates in a formal letter from the deputy head outlining post-employment restrictions—some term it a “cool-off period”—upon a departure from the public service.
In my particular case, I was given a one-year post-deployment restriction that forbade me from soliciting work or even being named on a request for proposal response for the core federal public service. I have that letter. I took that letter to KPMG upon my start date there, and we established the appropriate protocols and ethical walls to ensure that I was completely removed from the federal practice for the entirety of the first year, at which time I worked on other things like provincial government, municipal and other contracts.