Premier side-steps question about trusted adviser’s future role

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This article was published 16/01/2021 (1476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister confirmed Friday that a departing senior civil servant — and one of his closest advisers — will continue “to be a leader” in Manitoba’s pandemic fight.

This week, it was learned that Treasury Board secretary Paul Beauregard is looking to leave government, and has asked the clerk of the executive council, David McLaughlin, to start a search for his replacement. 

He also pledged to continue his work with the province’s vaccine implementation task force until the latter stages of the vaccine rollout.

Pallister dodged a question on Friday when asked if Beauregard would remain with government as a civil servant once he relinquishes the Treasury Board secretary role or help lead the province’s vaccination effort as a consultant.

“We need our best people fighting COVID and right now that’s our No. 1 challenge, and Paul Beauregard is one of our very best people. So he’ll continue to be a leader in the challenge we now face,” the premier responded. 

NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the rumours on Thursday about Beauregard’s future were an unfortunate distraction at a time when the government’s focus should be on the pandemic.

“(Thursday), it appears they spent their entire day redrafting statements to address personnel issues rather than actually focusing on delivering the vaccine to Manitobans,” Kinew said of the government’s response to media questions about Beauregard’s future.

“We’re at this inflection point in Manitoba’s fight against the pandemic, where we need our provincial government to get it right so that we can all roll up our sleeves and do our part by getting the vaccine. But they seem to be more concerned about what’s going on in their backrooms rather than how we can all beat the pandemic together,” he said.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont questioned the need for Beauregard to stay on with the government once he’s replaced as treasury board secretary, the top civil servant in charge of monitoring government spending.

“I think if he’s going to go, he should go,” Lamont said.

“Before he came to public service, he was in charge of mergers and acquisitions for Bell and Bell MTS. That comes with a particular skill-set, but it’s not emergency preparedness and it’s not… public health,” he said.

If Beauregard stays on, “it’s purely a patronage appointment for one of the premier’s friends because he wants to give him a golden parachute,” Lamont added.

Beauregard, who was hired from the private sector in 2017, is one of the most powerful persons in government with a hand on many of its most important files.

Last year, he made the news when it was revealed he had directed senior officials with Manitoba Hydro not to allow a subsidiary to bid on a lucrative government telecommunications contract. 

Last fall, he filed a workplace harassment complaint against NDP MLA Adrien Sala, who charged that Beauregard had acted improperly in the matter. The contract wound up being awarded to Beauregard’s old employer, Bell MTS, without a competition. 

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca