Would you call that a fair severance package ... a generous severance package ... or an obscene severance package?

One would have to wonder why, when Christy Clark is seeking every bit of media attention she can get,that she missed the opportunity to let British Columbian's know about her latest bit of financial largesse. I am not sure however that you and I would find it in keeping of what we would think is of benefit or help to BC families.

Many of you are likely aware that if you are not part of a union, with a collective agreement in place, that if you are let go, the Employment and Standards Act mandates employers to provide employees with a small amount of money (severance) to transition them to their next job.

Here's how it works ...

• After three months - one week's severance
• After 12 months - two weeks severance pay
• After three years - one week of severance pay for each completed year of employment, to a maximum of eight weeks

Note ... one week of pay is calculated by totaling the employee’s wages, excluding overtime, earned in the last eight weeks in which the employee worked normal or average hours; and the dividing that total by eight.

Given this information, I am sure that you would very quickly be able to determine the amount of severance you would receive if you were to be let go today.

So why am I bringing this up you ask?? Well it seems that our Christy Clark Liberal government determined that a good investment of our tax dollars would be pay-out / severance packages in the amount to 2.4 million dollars for senior government employees that she wanted to let go.

Here's the important thing to keep in mind --- these are people that were HIRED by our BC Liberal government!

Most of us are aware that in the transition from one political party governing, to another, there are often people let go due to possible political bias. BUT again remember, the people being let go were hired BY the BC Liberals.

You and I .. as taxpayers in the province of British Columbia ... are now funding more than $2.4 million dollars in severance payments for senior people fired by our still as of yet unelected Premier Christy Clark.

And get this ... our so-called conservative minded finance minister, Kevin Falcon said that with changes that were made to the Public Sector Employers Act in 2002, the number of months of severance these fired employees received was reduced (from 24 months to 18).

So who are these people that Christy Clark was so happy to provide a severance package too? Here they are, complete with the amount of severance they have received:

Alan Seckel, deputy minister to the premier and cabinet secretary, received over HALF A MILLIONS DOLLARS ($549,766)

Martyn Brown, deputy minister and former chief of staff to the premier, who received over FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($416,191)

Lesley Du Toit, deputy minister for children and family development, was happy I am sure to receive over a third of a million dollars ($337,413)

Ron Norman, head of the public affairs bureau, receive nearly a third of a million dollars

($323,917)

Lara Dauphinee, executive assistant to the premier and deputy chief of staff, got a severance of nearly two hundred thousand dollars ($192,886)

Jeff Hanman, deputy chief of staff ... Paul Taylor, chief of staff ... and Dale Steeves, director of communications ... each received an average of $113,000 each

There was over seventy five thousand dollars ($75,698) to Michael Harrison, ministerial assistant ... $72,994 to June Phillips, executive assistant ... $51,033 to Christine Willows, administrative coordinator ... $33,810 to Cathy Armstrong, administrative coordinator ... and finally poor ; and finally Richard Davis, ministerial assistant, had to be satisfied with $31,183.

Would you call that a fair severance package ... a generous severance package ... or an obscene severance package?

Remember these people were hired in the first place by the Liberal government --- and it is Christy Clark Liberals that have canned them. Remember too what your severance would be, under the labour standards employment act, should you be let go from your place of employment tomorrow.

Does that sound to you like a BC government that is putting the family first ...

Does that sound like a BC government that wants to be accountable to the voters ...

Does that sound like a BC government making good use of your hard earned taxes dollars.

If you can't answer “YES” to those three questions, can you answer YES to this one? Is a BC Liberal government under Christy Clark, any different than a BC Liberal government led by Gordon Campbell? I think I would be safe if thinking you would not be able to answer “Yes” to that one either. It's time to consider John Cummins, and the BC Conservative Party.

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops, and those are the thoughts of one conservative.