Notley’s chief of staff to exit

Premier Rachel Notley’s chief of staff is leaving after nine months on the job.

John Heaney, who took over for Brian Topp in December, is leaving the post and returning to his British Columbia home.

He will be replaced by Nathan Rotman, who is currently director of issues management in Notley’s office.

Heaney has deep roots with the B.C. NDP, but he said in an interview he’s departing to spend more time with his wife and two children, who have remained in B.C. during his Edmonton tenure, and he won’t take a post in John Horgan’s new government.

While he served less than a year as Notley’s chief of staff, Heaney had been part of Alberta’s NDP government since it took office in 2015, first as a member of the transition team and then as the premier’s deputy minister for the policy co-ordination office.

“I’ve been a four-day-a-month dad and husband all that time with my family in Victoria. And when I look at them now, I’m just not prepared to make that sacrifice anymore,” said Heaney, who plans to resume his law practice.

The 55-year-old Heaney has been a key official in Alberta’s response to the B.C. NDP government’s effort to block the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.

Heaney, who will not receive severance because he resigned, will stay in the post until October. Rotman is a former director of the national NDP who came to Alberta after the party’s provincial victory, serving first as chief of staff to Finance Minister Joe Ceci.

The replacement of Heaney with Rotman, 37, follows a summer staff shuffle that saw three chiefs of staff leave the government for personal reasons, and two more move to different positions.

However, both Heaney and Rotman said the moves were just natural turnover and not part of any broader overhaul of the government.

Rotman, who will be Notley’s third chief of staff, said it is the ministers and MLAs in the government who set the agenda.

“Our job here in the political staff side is to implement that agenda and to serve them as best as possible,” said Rotman, who also served as campaign manager for Olivia Chow’s 2014 Toronto mayoral campaign.

In a statement, Notley said Rotman is “enormously qualified as a senior leader within the Alberta government” who would help with the government’s priorities of strengthening the economy and securing market access for energy.

The premier also thanked Heaney, saying she had “heartfelt appreciation for his tremendous contribution to Alberta.”

As a deputy minister to Notley, Heaney played a significant role in developing the NDP government’s energy royalty review and climatechange plan.