PREMIER'S AIDE LEAVES FOR NEW JOB AT ONTARIO ENERGY BOARD
Jan 11, 2019
By Bob Komsic
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Doug Ford is losing his principal secretary.
(Canadian Press)
Jenni Byrne is becoming a member of the province’s energy regulator, the Ontario Energy Board.
Byrne, one of the architects of the Conservatives majority election win, will receive about $197,000-a-year over the two-year term.
The Opposition says it’s the latest example of the premier giving his friends ”cushy” public-sector jobs.
Toronto Police Superintendent Ron Taverner has been named OPP commissioner, though that’s been delayed pending an investigation, past PC party president Rueben Devlin was named healthcare adviser to the government and a Ford campaign adviser was appointed Ontario’s trade representative to the U.S.
”For Doug Ford to give out another ticket on his gravy train to yet another friend and ally is wrong,” said NDP MPP Peter Tabuns.
”Doug Ford trades in favours and backroom deals, and clearly, he wants to make sure the people who are supposed to be independent from politicians – from police to energy regulators – are loyal to him,” added Tabuns.
Considered by many as the most powerful woman at Queen’s Park, Byrne also ran former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s campaigns in 2011 and 2015.