Nine B.C. Liberal candidates who lost in the May provincial election have won plum government jobs.
The latest hire is Christina Bates, who finished third in the riding of Victoria-Swan Lake behind NDP victor Rob Fleming and Green candidate Spencer Malthouse.
Bates is now the ministerial assistant to the minister of children and family development, Stephanie Cadieux. The job pays $66,150 a year.
“That seems to be the foundation of the B.C. Liberal’s jobs plan, every time we look at the Orders in Council, there’s a new failed candidate who has been given a sizable pay increase and is now working on the government dime,” said NDP critic John Horgan.
“Government doesn’t create jobs, does it? I think that’s what the premier told us time and time again, but yet every time I look at the [Orders in Council] there’s another job being created for a failed Liberal candidate.”
Horgan rose in the legislature on Thursday to make a sarcastic introduction to the hired Liberals.
“Christina Bates came in third in Victoria-Swan Lake and now she’s cashing cheques,” Horgan told reporters. “Another government job, another B.C. Liberal jobs plan, mission accomplished.”
Steve Housser, a former journalist who ran as the Liberal candidate in Cowichan Valley, received what the government called a “short-term contract” as a manager of strategic planning and events in its communications branch. The government said the job is worth less than $20,000. Housser lost to the NDP’s Bill Routley by 1,397 votes.
Nick Facey, the failed North Island Liberal candidate, was appointed chief of staff to the minister of health with a salary of $89,775 a year. Facey is a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University.
Also hired was Karen Bill (Victoria-Beacon Hill) and Rishi Sharma (Saanich South). They are both chiefs of staff to ministers, earning $66,150 and $89,775, respectively.
Bill and Sharma held ministerial jobs before the election and took leaves of absence to run for the party — though the NDP noted they received raises after the election.
Hector Bremner, Scott Harrison, Fatima Siddiqui and Gabby Kalaw — all failed Liberal candidates — were also hired as assistants to ministers, with salaries ranging from $51,300 to $80,325.
Shane Mills, a spokesman for the premier’s office, said the jobs are political appointments, ultimately decided by Premier Christy Clark’s chief of staff, Dan Doyle.
“These are accomplished people and when hiring people into political roles it’s not surprising that we hire people who support the objectives of the government,” Mills said in a statement.
The NDP said there are no real qualifications for the jobs and questioned whether other legislature staff were allowed to apply.
