Severance packages for fired B.C. Liberals cost taxpayers millions
VICTORIA — The new NDP government’s transition to power cost taxpayers $11.3 million in severance packages for fired Liberal political staffers.
The NDP terminated 133 Liberal appointees, including ministerial assistants, public relations staffers and a few deputy ministers.
The total bill for severance packages was $11,322,206, the government revealed Friday, or an average of about $85,000 per person.
That figure does not include any severance paid to B.C. Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald, who was fired by Hydro’s board on Friday. Her severance package is expected to be particularly large, because she earned $528,342 in pay, benefits and pension in the last fiscal year. Any severance would go on Hydro’s financial books, and not those of government.
In 2001, when the B.C. Liberals transitioned in to power after defeating the NDP, the severance bill was $9 million, which, adjusted for inflation, puts it slightly higher than the amount spent by the NDP.
The government says the initial round of terminations stemming from the transition are largely over, and future departures from government will be voluntary.