NDP creating new public office
Liberals not impressed by use of taxpayer money to fund the new secretariat
B.C.’s outgoing and incoming premiers shuffled their senior staff Tuesday in preparation for swapping jobs next week.
Premier-designate John Horgan, who will be sworn in to office July 18, announced an entirely new publicly funded office dedicated to managing his power-sharing deal with the B.C. Green party.
The Confidence and Supply Agreement Secretariat will be housed within the NDP premier’s office, staffed by executive director Donna Sanford, and dedicated to keeping the NDP minority government alive and functioning with Green support, said Horgan.
“We’ve announced a co-ordination effort with respect to our agreement with the Green caucus that’s designed to be open and transparent so the public understands we want to make this minority situation work,” said Horgan, whose deal with the Greens allowed him to topple the Liberal government by a one-vote margin on a confidence vote June 29.
“We want to make it work for the people of B.C. That’s why we entered into the agreement and that’s why we are putting in place a secretariat to make sure, not just the Green caucus but the Liberal caucus also has access to information about how decisions are being made.”
It’s unclear what the office will cost taxpayers or how many staff it will employ. The NDP has said it will release the salaries of new officials once they are officially hired after the July 18 swearingin ceremony.
The NDP-Green agreement, inked in late May, secured Green support on budget, throne speech and other confidence votes in exchange for NDP action on priority Green items and consultation with the Greens on key issues.
Outgoing Liberal cabinet minister Andrew Wilkinson said the public shouldn’t have to pay for dedicated staff to manage the politics of the NDP and Greens.
“It’s very surprising they’d take this as a priority, that they’d use taxpayers’ funds to hire public servants to perform what is essentially a relationship between two political parties,” he said. “That is inappropriate and they should reconsider.”
Horgan also on Tuesday named his new communications team, which includes Sage Aaron as communications director, Jen Holmwood as deputy communications director, Sheena McConnell as press secretary and Marie Della Mattia as a communications “special adviser.” Kate Van Meer-Mass was named director of operations for the NDP premier’s office.
Horgan will also name his cabinet at the swearing-in ceremony at Government House in Victoria. Behind the scenes, his deputy minister Don Wright is setting in place the senior ranks of a new NDP civil service and transitioning the party into government. New Democrats will also be hiring and firing dozens of political staffers, communications officials and senior bureaucrats as they assume power.
Outgoing premier Christy Clark also reset her staff in anticipation of becoming demoted to Opposition leader. She named Nick Koolsbergen as her Opposition chief of staff, Jessica Wolford as deputy chief of staff and Stephen Smart as executive director of communications and issues management.
Koolsbergen previously worked for former prime minister Stephen Harper’s office in issues management, where he once made headlines for purportedly co-writing a memo asking government staff to develop “enemy” lists for incoming ministers.
Clark said the “strong and experienced” team will work with the 43 Liberal MLAs in the legislature to “form an extremely effective opposition to hold the NDP-Green alliance to account on behalf of British Columbians.”