Severances for outgoing PC staffers about $4M

Alberta taxpayers are on the hook for roughly $4 million in severance payments after more than 100 Progressive Conservative political staffers were handed their termination notices Friday morning. About 115 partisan government staffers lost their jobs as they prepare to make way for the incoming New Democrat government to take power during Sunday’s swearing-in ceremony for premier-designate Rachel Notley and her yet-to-be named cabinet.

Press secretaries, chiefs of staff and administrative staff in the premier’s office and ministers’ offices lost their jobs Friday, Alberta government spokeswoman Robyn Cochrane said. The incoming NDP government retained 10 administrative staff, she added.

The large turnover in political staff is unprecedented in the province as it transfers power from one party to another for the first time in nearly 44 years.

Each terminated employee will receive an average severance of $35,000, Cochrane said.

“The vast majority of the political staff get three months of severance if the employee had less than one year with government,” Cochrane said.

However, staff with longer tenure will receive an extra month of severance for each additional year of service, to a maximum of six months, she said.

Full severance details will be published on the province’s sunshine list only if the outgoing staffer earned at least $102,100 in the fiscal year. The next sunshine list update is scheduled for June 30.

Alberta NDP staff are preparing to begin their official transition to power as Sunday’s swearingin ceremony on the legislature grounds approaches.

“It’s standard procedure for political staff in the premier’s office and the ministers’ offices to receive termination notices two days before the swearing-in,” said NDP spokeswoman Cheryl Oates.

Oates said the incoming NDP government is working on installing its own team of political staffers and is actively recruiting talent from Alberta and across Canada.

Legislature staff, meanwhile, began preparing logistics for the swearing-in ceremony. Tents and sound systems were being installed Friday as the red carpet — required for the ceremony by the province’s protocol office — was rolled out on the main steps of the building.