Opposition politicians are wondering if the Liberals even care anymore about trying to be discreet about patronage.
The person who government had a significant hand in hiring for a $130,000 job at The Rooms has now been appointed to an executive position in the civil service.
Minister Christopher Mitchelmore had to apologize to the House of Assembly a couple of months ago for his role in having Carla Foote hired at The Rooms. Premier Dwight Ball has now appointed her to the assistant deputy minister of the office of Public Engagement. Her salary dips to $123,000 from $130,000.
PC Leader Ches Crosbie says the Liberals keep doing the same things over and over. He says the same blatancy is on display as it was when Mitchelmore was found guilty of wasting public money. All this while Crosbie has a constituent who is left to die for the sake of $800.
He says the Liberals aren’t just engaged with Carla Foote, they’re married to her.
Appointment Opens Door for Potentially Biased Information, says Coffin
NDP leader Alison Coffin calls it a really unfortunate pattern of behavior for the Ball government.
She says while the entire thing seems to be a bit of a distraction from the bigger issues of the budget and rate mitigation, moving Foote to the Office of Public engagement is problematic.
Public Engagement, Coffin says, is about getting unbiased opinions from the public. But she says rather than having a public engagement background Foote has a very political background, which isn’t what you want when looking for data without political slant.
Alliance Calls for Premier’s Resignation
The NL Alliance are calling for Premiere Dwight Ball’s resignation.
A statement released late last night credits recent staffing and hiring events involving Carla Foote as an indicator that Premiere Ball has lost the ability to lead the province in the best interest of the people.
NL Alliance says they see no choice but to invite all elected MHA’s and everyone in the province to join them in calling for Ball’s resignation due to what the NL Alliance is calling “obvious gross negligence of Newfoundland and Labrador’s best interests”.
The Leader of the NL Alliance, Graydon Pelley, is saying that government is making a mockery of the democratic process and is an insult to the people of this province.
