Documents filed under the Financial Disclosure Act show Robin Adair, while running for MLA in May's election, had an interest in the success of the welfare-to-work firm WCG International Consultants Ltd. for which he once worked.

Adair's past connections with the training firm became an issue when The Tyee obtained an auditors report from 2006 that found the government had overpaid WCG by at least $627,000.

Adair, who ran as the Saanich South Liberal candidate, was WCG's vice-president responsible for communications and government relations for several years, including the time of the audit.

On April 22, Victoria's CFAX radio reported Adair "maintains that while he worked in the communications branch of the company, he had absolutely no decision making roles."

Adair had previously told Public Eye that he had stopped working for WCG by the end of October, 2008.

Documents filed under the Financial Disclosure Act show Adair still had an interest in WCG's success as a stockholder, however. His disclosure, signed on March 31, 2009, said he owned stocks in Providence Service Corp., the company that in 2007 bought WCG.

Adair said he bought the shares around the time Providence bought WCG. "I bought some shares like anybody can on the stock market," he said. "I had no controlling interest."

He said he did his best to be forthcoming during the election. "I said I had nothing to do with WCG, and I stand by that," he said. "If I'd thought of it I would have said, 'I do have a few shares in the company.'"

The value of the shares went down soon after he bought them, he said, and he's been waiting for them to come back up before he sells.

In July Adair resigned as the chair of Camosun College's board of directors and took a job as Vancouver's general manager of intergovernmental relations and strategic partnerships.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.