Every now and then I find myself reflecting on my previous occupation and wondering how I would approach certain political issues if I were still a journalist. You see, as an interviewer, I took great pride in asking fair yet tough questions of the news makers. I felt it my duty to advocate for the viewer and get past the rhetoric and focus on the real story. Well, I still feel that way, only now I pose tough fair questions to the AB government on your behalf as your MLA and a proud member of the Wildrose official opposition in this province.
So, with that in mind, let me tell you about the latest government controversy/scandal that has a ton of Albertans, and yours truly, more than a little frustrated with the era of entitlement for this pc government
Last week, Stephen Carter, the Premier’s former chief of staff revealed that he was paid $130,000 in severance when he left the job as chief of staff after only six months, only to be employed by the premier as her election campaign manager.
Journalists and critics had been trying to get this information for months, but the premier’s office, despite the privacy commissioner ruling to make the information public, still refused to release it.
Doesn’t exactly seem like the new era of “transparency” that the pc’s promised pre-election does it. Sorry, I digress.
So, here’s the point. The Chief of Staff (Stephen Carter) voluntarily leaves his position only to take another paid position with the premier and collects $130,000 of taxpayer money for doing it. He also starts on the pay roll at another very hefty salary effective immediately.
Imagine if you voluntarily left a position with a company, only to go across the hall into another department. Would your employer pay you a giant severance to do so? After only six months in the first position? Not if they wanted to stay in business. That’s the problem though, this sort of thing happens all the time with the current government, and it seems to be acceptable. In fact, the premier’s office alone has paid close to $2.5 million dollars in severance packages since 2010. This is why we continually call for the government to stop its wasteful spending and stop “billing” Alberta.
In the private sector, a proper severance package usually pays about three weeks salary for every year worked. So if you work for an employer for ten years, you’ll walk away with 30 weeks pay. This can vary some, but generally this is accepted as fair. And severance is also usually only paid when the company chooses not to renew your contract or eliminates your position. This is clearly not what happened here. The man voluntarily left, pocketed $130,000, changed desks, and kept working for the same people. Feeling queasy yet?
It’s also worth noting that we have yet to see the official documents revealing the actual severance. It may have been $130,000 as Stephen Carter suggested in his tweet, but given the very low trust factor with this current government, the right thing to do is release the actual documents so the public (who paid the severance anyway) can see for itself.
As I consider all this, I realize I’m probably in the best position I could be to quiz the government about it. You see, there’s virtually no chance any pc members would make themselves available in a TV studio to take questions on this topic. They will however have to face the music in the Legislature when we finally return October 28th. My colleagues and I are very much looking forward to that, because we all deserve some answers.
