Staffer severance payments reach $1.7M after Manitoba government changes hands

Severance payments to political staff following last year's Manitoba election have reached about $1.7 million, government figures show -- and that does not include an undisclosed payout to the former chief executive officer of Manitoba Hydro.

Severance payments to political staff following last year's Manitoba election have reached about $1.7 million, government figures show -- and that does not include an undisclosed payout to the former chief executive officer of Manitoba Hydro.

Large-scale staff turnover is a regular occurrence after elections lead to a government changing hands. The Manitoba election on Oct. 3, which saw the NDP end seven years of Progressive Conservative rule, was no exception.

Unlike civil servants, political staff -- ministerial chiefs of staff, policy advisers, cabinet press secretaries and more -- are expected to be politically aligned with the party in power. Their employment comes and goes with changes in government.

"Political jobs are a form of 'vulnerable employment' because there is a wholesale exodus of individuals serving the premier, cabinet and individual ministers when governments change," said Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

"Usually there is a formula used to calculate the severance payout for individual staffers based on the level of their former job, their previous salary and years of service."

A government web page that discloses payments for such employees lists dozens of staff that received severance payments in the weeks following the October election.

Many received less than $10,000. A few received more than $50,000. One of the largest payments -- $146,000 -- went to a longtime Progressive Conservative who worked for caucus before the Tory election win in 2016 and rose to become chief of staff.