Liberals want political appointee perks provided to public

The Opposition is pressing the Tory government to reveal perks and benefits provided to political appointees above their base pay.

Liberal justice critic Andrew Parsons cited a CBC News investigation during question period at the house of assembly on Wednesday.

"One of the most fundamental rights of this house is to approve expenditures and provide oversight that money is well spent," Parsons said.

"Yet, now government intends to hide quantities and evidence of non-salary payments to political appointees of government, a long way from openness and accountability. Thank you, Bill 29.

'One of the most fundamental rights of this house is to approve expenditures and provide oversight that money is well spent.' —Liberal justice critic Andrew Parsons

"I ask the minister: Will government commit to revealing upon request all non-salary payments and any other benefits provided to political appointees of this government?"

Keith Hutchings, the minister in charge of the new Office of Public Engagement, said that information should remain private.

"In terms of protecting individual privacy, we would not release the actual figure because that would breach maybe the employer-employee, a certain relationship in regards to bonuses," Hutchings said.

"That relates to an individual’s employment history. Mr. Speaker, I do not think that should be in the public domain. We support that, and we certainly support that piece of legislation."

As CBC News reported this week, perks and pay that have been disclosed in the past are now being withheld.

In the legislature Wednesday, Parsons cited the example of Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation CEO Len Simms.

Simms has been eligible for a number of payments above his base salary of $160,000.

But the government won’t say how much he received.

Those extra perks include:

• a performance bonus of up to 10 per cent per year for the three years from 2009 and 2011, as part of a little-publicized incentive pay program for deputy ministers and CEOs.
• payouts for unused paid leave when Simms’s contract is terminated. That happened twice. Simms is entitled to six weeks off per year. But NLHC won’t say how much of a payout, if any, he has received for unused leave.
• another payment clause in the CEO’s contract was entirely blacked out before being released to CBC News; housing corporation officials now say that has something to do with an RRSP, but won’t provide any more details.

Simms is a former Progressive Conservative leader, and longtime party organizer.

He stepped down twice from his housing corporation post to help run the successful 2007 and 2011 Tory election campaigns.

Simms was not on the public payroll during the weeks he worked for the party.

He was reappointed to the NLHC top job soon after each election win.

Previous disclosures were ‘voluntary’

The government continues to maintain that no perks and pay above base salary were ever covered by the law before Bill 29.

CBC News provided a number of examples of those payments being made public before the new law came into effect.

Hutchings has said those disclosures were "voluntary," with civil servants simply consenting to give out their financial information.

Bill 29 changed the language of the law about the disclosure of employee pay and benefits.

But officials stressed when the legislation was introduced that there would be no change in what information could be accessed by the public.

The Liberal justice critic isn’t buying that.

"This was an outright falsehood," Parsons said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

"In fact, they replaced the very word ‘remuneration,' which refers to total compensation, with the term ‘salary range.’ We knew something was up the day the budget came down."

Parsons noted that other financial documents that were provided with the provincial budget over the past four decades were not published this year.

The departmental salary details were eventually released. But Parsons says the document was missing key information that had been included in previous years.