Premier Christy Clark is the one judging the Opposition’s protracted wrestling match with Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk and it looks as if she has called round three in his favour.
Round 1 took place last spring, when the New Democrats pounced on evidence that Kwantlen Polytechnic University was skirting disclosure rules and paying executive salaries above provincial
limits while Virk was on the board three years ago.
“Outlandish,” sniffed Virk, dismissing numerous questions in the House about his role.
Pursuit of the issue eventually prompted the finance ministry to review the Kwantlen board’s handling of salaries for incoming executives.
Assistant deputy minister Rob Mingay’s report — round two — identified some problems with the creative pay arrangements. Virk apologized — sort of — but relied on the finding that he was not involved in the most egregious case.
Various public-sector bodies have become star-struck when it comes to hiring. But salary limits mean they can’t offer enough money to bring in the reputed executive superstars.
So in the last few years, boards at places such as the Royal B.C. Museum, the B.C. Cancer Agency and Kwantlen have invented ways to quietly sweeten the deals being offered.
Round 3 started last month and is still playing out. The NDP brandished new email evidence showing Virk was apparently very much in the loop. That prompted Finance Minister Mike de Jong to ask Mingay for his views on re-opening the report.
The Opposition is now pushing for an auditor-general probe of Kwantlen. While it’s Mingay’s call as to whether another look will be taken, it’s pretty clear that Clark has decided to back Virk through round three as well.
In a year-end interview last week, she discussed her approach to deciding such issues.
“I don’t base it on what the NDP says. They’ve called for, I think, seven or eight independent inquiries so far this session, it’s kind of their go-to with everything.”
Virk was receiving and sending emails on various board issues from his RCMP account, as a senior member of the force. He subsequently retired and ran for office, so he had no access to the account when the issue resurfaced.
Clark said he simply forgot about the messages that indicate he was personally involved in deliberations on one of the salary top-ups.
“He very much wishes he would have remembered that, given the beating the NDP has been trying to lay on him, and trying to drag his reputation through the mud.
“When he says sincerely he didn’t remember having received that email, on a contract over which he didn’t have approval oversight, I think most reasonable people would say that’s a sincere admission that he forgot. And of course he’s very regretful about that.”
Part of what’s driving the protracted attention to the secret overpayments to Kwantlen bosses is a number of whistle-blowers.
They are past and present lower-level employees who have access to emails and know which ones they want.
There’s nothing like scheming to overpay CEOs and vice-presidents to trigger the whistleblowing urge in the lower echelons.
The pipeline is up and running between them and the NDP, and nobody is clear yet whether the flow has peaked.
Also in the background are some civil lawsuits about workplace problems filed by former staff.
They are driving potential court cases into which Virk could be dragged, as a witness. (Considering how much trouble the board went to in overpaying to attract talent, it doesn’t sound as if it led to much harmony in the area of human resources.)
Whether this goes another few rounds depends on the whistleblowers, who seem to be doling out their goods strategically, rather than all at once. If the evidence trove dries up, the controversy might as well.
As it stands, Clark told the legislature in the last week: “I have absolute confidence in the work that the minister is doing.”
That position puts a discount on whatever Mingay decides to do with Virk’s refreshed memories of his role in salary-setting. But it was always up to Clark to make the call, regardless.
She wants him in cabinet and that — subject to more leaks — is that.
lleyne@timescolonist.com
twitter.com/leyneles
