The Premier continues to pay a high-priced, part-time political staffer with MCP dollars intended for health care. Three months after the scandal was first uncovered, more details have now been revealed.
During the budget process, the Official Opposition learned that Dr. Whalen, who was hired as a political advisor but paid $275,000 through MCP, spends very little time in the Department of Health with the Minister or her officials, and that his involvement with the Department hasn’t been much more than the occasional “drop in” or phone call.
It was also revealed during the budget process that the Premier failed to adjust his Office staff salary budget accordingly. Rather than reduce his budget by $275,000 to account for Dr. Whalen, he is padding his political staff by an extra $275,000.
Further, more documents recently received through ATIPP requests again demonstrate that Dr. Whalen is working on non-health care files. Still, the Premier maintains that the MCP funded salary for political staff is justified.
Turns out, this is not the only first time Mr. Wakeham has built up his staffing budget by using funds from other Departments. It was discovered during the budget process that the Premier’s former Deputy Chief of Staff, Steve Outhouse, was secretly being paid through Cabinet Secretariat as professional services to his consulting company.
The Deputy Chief of Staff is a senior partisan political position. Mr. Outhouse, who now serves as federal Conservative leader Pierre Pollievre’s Chief of Staff, was astonishingly not paid in accordance with established political staff salary policies and through the Premier’s Office budget, but secretly through funds not allocated for partisan appointments or to a corporation.
Twice now, that we know of, Premier Wakeham has bolstered his partisan Political Support Staff by misappropriating public funds. This is wrong, full stop.
The Official Opposition asked numerous questions on this during Question Period and received no answers, and more deflection from the Wakeham government.
Premier Wakeham is trying to hide from questions on these scandals. Late last week, the Premier sent a letter to the Leader of the Official Opposition and the Leader of the Third Party twisting very serious concerns about decorum into suggesting that the Opposition should not be asking questions about individuals like Dr. Whalen.
This is despite the now-Premier’s history of repeatedly asking about political staff when he was Opposition Leader, and serious questions about the Premier’s decisions to inappropriately spend public funds on partisan operatives.
“It’s obvious that the Premier is missing the point. The Opposition is asking him and his government about their decisions to use MCP and other public funds to pay for extra political staff. This line of questioning to the government is not only the role of the Opposition, but is a fundamental pillar of democracy.” says Leader of the Official Opposition, John Hogan.
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