Pallister attacks severance payments made to ex-NDP staffers again in the legislature

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This article was published 26/5/2015 (1366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The payment of $670,000 to seven ex-NDP senior staff members dominated Question Period for another day today with the opposition charging that the premier’s office abused the NDP leadership process.

Progressive Conservation Brian Pallister for the past week has been pressing the government to release the amount of each individual package, and who negotiated it, which the government has refused. 

Pallister has also charged that the deals are as high as they are so that none of the seven sue the government for wrongful dismissal. Each supported leadership rival Theresa Oswald, and had been told they would not be fired if they did that support work outside office time. Premier Greg Selinger was reaffirmed as the party’s leader is a close March 8 vote.

On Tuesday, Pallister brought Heather Grant-Jury into mix. She appointed as principal secretary to the premier on Nov. 3 on a secondment arrangement, and returned to her job as director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832 training centre as of April 2.

The timing of Grant-Jury’s secondment coincided with the NDP leadership campaign and vote, Pallister said.

"Isn’t this an obvious case of using the office of the premier as a campaign headquarters?" Pallister said. "Why did the premier use taxpayers money for his personal benefit and for his own leadership campaign?"

Selinger said Heather Grant-Jury and others were hired to work for the province.

Selinger also said the former government under Gary Filmon had its own staff severance packages that it never revealed to the public.

"We have seen that when the member opposite was in government their severance payments were very close in the amount for seven key staff members that what our severance payments were," Selinger said in the House. "(Pallister) is practicing a double standard. He doesn’t want to acknowledge that he waited 16 years to accept that there was very significant severance payments during the time that they were in office. We made that information available to the public as soon as possible."

Today’s exchange in the legislature comes as three more junior NDP staff members are voluntarily leaving their jobs to work for the new NDP government in Alberta.

Selinger said they will not be awarded severance packages other than what they are legally entitled.