NDP plans on hold until Clark is ousted

Transition team ready, party says

B.C.’s New Democrats say they’ve got a transition team ready to help them form the next government, but they’ve put its formal work on hold until they see whether they are successful in voting down Premier Christy Clark’s government this month.

“What you do in these circumstances is you assume you might win and you start preparing stuff beforehand,” said Bob Dewar, chief of staff to NDP Leader John Horgan and the party’s election campaign director.

“What we were going to do if we won on May 9 was announce our transition team the day after the election, who it was. But because that didn’t happen, we didn’t. And everything is sort of on hold, although there’s been a lot prepared.

“As soon as we have a definitive idea of what’s going on, in other words if we are asked to form the government, then we will take a couple of weeks to do a transition. And at that point we’ll announce our team, who is on it, and key positions.

“We can’t do anything until we’re asked to form government.”

Clark is expected to recall the legislature this month. An NDP-Green alliance of 44 MLAs, formalized in an accord this week, would have the votes necessary to defeat her government on a matter of confidence and force her to resign.

Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon could then ask Horgan to form the next government and at that point, Dewar said, the NDP transition team would go into high gear.

“We have people in mind, but at this point we can’t announce anybody because we’re not there yet,” he said.

Horgan has said he has not received any transition materials from the civil service, which would outline in detail the government’s financial situation.

“The current premier has indicated her intention to form government and meet the house, and the established convention is that the public service reports only to the government of the day,” said assistant deputy minister Matt Gordon in a statement.

“Should the leader of the opposition be asked to form government by the lieutenant-governor, the public service is prepared to immediately provide transition materials on the machinery of government, administration, and plans on the incoming government’s agenda to the then-premier designate. This is consistent with the practice of public service across the country.”

Dewar said the NDP accept that explanation.

“We’re satisfied at this point,” he said. “It’s a professional public service and they’ve done this before and we have to have a level of trust.”

Part of the transition to an NDP government will include the firing of dozens of Liberal political staff, communications directors, deputy ministers and other Liberal-friendly appointees on boards, agencies and commissions. The NDP would then hire new staff.

Some of the Liberal patronage jobs come with big salaries, such as the deputy finance minister, Athana Mentzelopoulos, a longtime Clark friend who made $266,904 last year. Large salaries could result in hefty severance packages.

For example, after the 2013 election, Clark fired deputy minister Graham Whitmarsh, who had been an appointee of former premier Gordon Campbell, and gave him a $460,000 severance and salary package. The dozen or so senior managers fired during the Campbell-to-Clark transition cost $2.5 million in severance.

The NDP acknowledged the change comes with a cost.

“Transition is to put your people in place,” Dewar said. “When you get down to the senior levels of the bureaucracy, you’ve got to see who is doing what and that sort of thing.”

Some costs are unavoidable as partisan staff are let go, said Scott Hennig, vice-president of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“This is just what happens when governments transition, but it’s expensive.”