PAUL MERRIMAN
The MLA is being accused of holding the food bank “hostage” while campaigning.
REGINA — The provincial NDP Opposition wants an independent investigation into Sask. Party MLA Paul Merriman’s request for the Saskatoon Food Bank to keep paying him while he campaigned in Saskatoon Sutherland in 2011.
“This is a really audacious circumstance,” Opposition critic David Forbes told reporters after raising his concerns in question period. “He should have known better.”
Emails obtained by the Opposition and raised in the legislature on Tuesday indicate Merriman, who was CEO of the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre, requested a paid leave of absence for the month prior to the election. Merriman copied his lawyer, Gary Meschishnick — who is also the Sask. Party’s president — on the email.
The food bank board decided it could not grant Merriman that leave, citing Canada Revenue Agency rules prohibiting charities from supporting political parties or candidates.
Merriman told reporters on Tuesday that he was advised to request the leave and was concerned about how he could support his family during the campaign period.
He said he didn’t find out the Sask. Party would pay him $5,000 for that month until two weeks into the writ period.
“The paid leave was denied by the board at the time, and that was kind of the end of the story,” Merriman said. “There was no correspondence back to the board in my disagreement in their denying of my request.”
Forbes said Merriman’s apparent lack of understanding of the process, despite having been nominated for months prior to the election, demonstrates a lack of preparation.
“It was wrong for a charity to be giving any financial support to a political party or candidate. We think that’s really inappropriate. I think that any party should be preparing all of its candidates,” Forbes said.
Merriman continued to seek payment from the food bank after he was elected. In other emails from the time period, obtained by The StarPhoenix, a months-long dispute ensued after Merriman won his seat, as he sought to be paid out by the board. The situation was complicated, since Merriman didn’t have a contract.
Emailed exchanges between board members described Merriman’s behaviour as “insulting,” and suggested Merriman was “holding us hostage” by “threatening” to stay on as CEO on a long leave if he didn’t receive payment. In one email, Merriman said the dispute needed to be resolved by the end of the year or he would contact his attorney.
“The conversations that happened between the board members, I wasn’t privy to,” Merriman said Tuesday. “That’s good dialogue for any board, is to have some agreement and some disagreement on how they should go about any of the processes of what’s happening with their organization.”
Merriman used the word “severance” in one email, but told reporters Tuesday that the money he was seeking was for vacation time owed to him. The emails reveal he didn’t track his holidays and hadn’t negotiated how many weeks he was entitled to take off during his four years as CEO.
The board eventually reached a settlement with Merriman, but the amount is not clear from the emails and Merriman declined to reveal it. Some emails referred to sums in the range of $10,000. The chair of the board has declined to comment on matters related to human resources.
Merriman was recently nominated as the Sask. Party candidate for Saskatoon Silverspring- Sutherland in 2016. In his biographical notes, the party touts his record at the food bank, saying “he worked diligently to increase funding and decrease costs” at the organization.