NDP rehired embattled senior staffer
The Opposition wants to know why the provincial NDP has rehired a former premier’s office staffer who is under investigation by Alberta’s privacy commissioner.
John Heaney, Premier Rachel Notley ’s chief of staff, resigned last August, citing a desire to be with his family in British Columbia.
Heaney was hired back by the NDP in October as an executive adviser in the finance ministry, with a salary of $130,500.
The contract was signed in February.
In April, his role was broadened to include the energy ministry, though he’s not in a government worker directory.
Energy press secretary JeanMarc Prevost confirmed Heaney had been re-hired.
“He has been tasked with providing legal advice related to pipelines and market access — working specifically on the Trans Mountain expansion file — and also assisted with development of a path to reduce our budget deficit,” Prevost said in an email.
Prevost said only permanent staff are listed on the government staff directory.
In November, United Conservative Party accountability critic Nathan Cooper asked Information and Privacy Commissioner Jill Clayton to investigate what he called “political interference” by Heaney and Service Alberta in 2016.
Those investigations aren’t public, but at the time, it was expected to include an oral hearing with notices issued to compel staffers to attend and produce records.
“Alberta’s NDP government needs to explain why it thought it appropriate to rehire someone that’s the subject of an ongoing investigation into political interference, and deliberately hide this information from the public,” Cooper said in a statement Thursday.
“This comes at a time when those offices are engaged on an important pipeline file, one integral to our province’s vital economic interests.”
Heaney has strong ties to the B.C. NDP, having served as chief of staff under Premier John Horgan back when the New Democrats were in opposition.
By all accounts, he and Horgan — who is fighting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion — are longtime friends.
According to a 2015 Victoria Times Colonist piece by reporter Les Leyne, penned when Heaney first gave up his West Coast lifestyle to join Notley ’s team, Horgan said Heaney had been an “invaluable adviser” for many years.