Pallister’s trusted adviser signals his departure

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/01/2021 (1345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A powerful figure with a hand in most important files in Premier Brian Pallister’s government is on his way out — eventually.

Paul Beauregard has given notice he will leave his role as Treasury Board secretary once his replacement is found.

However, he will remain a part of Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force “until the latter stages of the vaccine rollout,” a government spokesman said.

Beauregard, a key adviser to the premier who is said to be more powerful than most cabinet ministers, has been a “senior leader” in the government’s pandemic response, Pallister has said.

He joined the government in 2017 after working in executive positions with both Manitoba Telecom Service Inc., and BCE/Bell Canada.

Beauregard has been given responsibility for negotiating contracts with outside suppliers, informing institutions and unions of government cuts, and last year made news when it was revealed he had warned senior officials of Manitoba Hydro, on behalf of the government, not to bid on a lucrative provincial contract through its telecom subsidiary.

He also made headlines when he filed a workplace harassment complaint against NDP MLA Adrien Sala, who had charged that Beauregard had improperly directed Hydro over the contract, which wound up being awarded to his old employer, Bell MTS, without a competition.

“I am incredibly proud of the work done by my colleagues and myself in the public service,” Beauregard said in a brief statement to the Free Press late Thursday.

“In recent months, I have been repeatedly defamed by those who neither knew me nor took the time to obtain correct facts, which is deeply unfortunate,” he said.

The CBC reported late Wednesday evening that Beauregard had resigned. It quoted a provincial spokesperson as saying Beauregard had asked the clerk of the executive council, the province’s chief bureaucrat, David McLaughlin, to start looking for a new leader of the Treasury Board Secretariat, which is responsible for overseeing government spending.

Blake Robert, Pallister’s director of media relations and issues management, said Thursday that Beauregard “has been and continues to be a valued member of the civil service’s senior leadership team.”

“He recently advised his colleagues at the Treasury Board Secretariat that he will be stepping down from his role as secretary once a successor is chosen, but also that he will continue his important work with Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force until the latter stages of the vaccine rollout. At that point, he has signalled his intention to return to private life,” Robert said in a late afternoon email.

“Career transitions are common among senior leaders, and the suggestion that this is anything other than routine is false and should not be entertained,” Robert wrote.

Earlier in the day, before the government clarified Beauregard’s status, the Opposition NDP had expressed concern that the powerful bureaucrat was leaving government at a critical time in the pandemic response.

Just last week, the premier installed a new health minister, Heather Stefanson, in place of Cameron Friesen, whose performance during the health crisis had been panned in some circles.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca