Taxpayers will be on the hook for up to $500,000 in a severance payment after Premier Doug Ford’s chief of staff ordered the ouster of a Progressive Conservative executive at Ontario Power Generation.Three Conservatives sources confirmed to the Star what was first reported Monday by the Globe and Mail — that Dean French phoned OPG chair Bernard Lord to demand that Alykhan Velshi be removed from the Crown utility.French’s call to Lord, a former Tory premier of New Brunswick, came just as Velshi, who was chief of staff to both ex-PC leader Patrick Brown and interim leader Vic Fedeli, was starting his new job as OPG’s vice president of corporate affairs and community relations.Velshi, also once a key aide to former Tory prime minister Stephen Harper, is still on the job at the electricity generator, but sources say the terms of his departure are being negotiated and could take effect in the New Year.“It’s going to cost at least $500,000,” said one Conservative insider, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.Reached by the Star on Tuesday, Velshi referred all inquiries to OPG’s media relations department.In an impish GIF posted to his Twitter account after the Globe story was published Monday night he depicted a Detroit Red Wings hockey player scoring a goal on his own net.“We don’t discuss individual employee matters,” Neal Kelly, an OPG spokesman, said in an email.Ford’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries about the hefty severance payout.It remains unclear whether the premier was aware his chief of staff was intervening in a personnel matter at OPG, which is highly unusual.“Why are we going after our own people?” confided one frustrated senior Conservative, noting while post-election shake-ups are not uncommon they are customarily aimed at partisans from rival political parties.There is no love lost between the Ford camp and Brown ...
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