BC NDP take more heat from opposition over contracts for consultants, advisers
British Columbia’s NDP government is taking more fire from the opposition BC Conservatives over contracts it has awarded to top advisers.
The opposition is raising new questions after the province hired Dr. Tim Stainton’s consultancy to review Community Living B.C.
Stainton was one of the people who helped create the Crown corporation tasked with caring for some of B.C.’s most vulnerable people.
CLBC’s board is also chaired by former NDP cabinet minister Shane Simpson.
“It seems that the NDP continues to go to the well with former ministers, former electeds. It makes you wonder how little confidence they have in their own current cabinet members when they have to do this,” BC Conservative finance critic Peter Milobar said.
“And the bigger problem is the lack of transparency. Never a disclosure of how much they are getting paid, what the deliverable is expected.”
The BC Conservatives are also flagging the appointment of former NDP environment minister George Heyman as a special advisor on public sector bargaining.
Milobar noted that the province didn’t announce the appointment — rather, it emerged when Heyman changed his LinkedIn profile.
“The former head of the (B.C. General Employees Union) BCGEU is now advising the government on how best to negotiate with the BCGEU, that’s certainly going to work out well for the taxpayer, I am sure,” he said.
The questions come as the province faces scrutiny over two other contracts.
Premier David Eby terminated a contract with Michael Bryant halfway through its six-month term, saying media coverage had become a distraction from the work Bryant was meant to do advising on the future of the Downtown Eastside.
And on Thursday, the opposition raised concerns about a $1 million open-ended contract with Dr. Daniel Vigo, B.C.’s chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders.
Vigo has been instrumental in spearheading the NDP government’s efforts at implementing involuntary treatment for people with severe mental health, addiction and brain injury issues.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said Friday she believed Vigo’s work is “worth every penny.”
“Having an expert like Dr. Vigo come and provide advice to government and undertake a very methodical and studious examination of the data that is out there, looking with legal experts at the Mental Health Act … this is not something that can be replicated inside government,” she said.
“It is really important at this point in time that we have this expert advice. And the recommendations that Dr. Vigo and his team have put forward to government are actions we are already seeing underway.”
As a part of Vigo’s work, the province has now opened 28 beds in two involuntary care facilities, one at the South Fraser Pretrial Centre and one at the Alouette Homes in Maple Ridge, for people who are not in contact with the criminal justice system.
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