Who foots the bill for BC United staffers' severance payments?

The emergence of a number of incumbent MLAs running now as Independents isn’t the only consequence of last month’s collapse of the BC United Party.

The situation has also meant 25 BC United caucus staffers are being laid off. There is some doubt whether there is enough money in the BC United caucus funds to pay for all that severance.

As a result, an all-party committee at the legislature, the Legislative Assembly Management Committee met Monday to determine where the funds for that severance will come from.

The committee voted to have it come primarily from the BC United caucus funds. If there’s still a shortfall, the funding would come from constituency coffers, and if there is still not enough money to pay the staffers’ severance, the remainder will come from the legislative assembly.

Green Party MLA Adam Olsen is a member of LAMC. He took part in Monday’s meeting and says while taxpayers would be on the hook for any severance paid to staffers who are laid off as a result of an election, the circumstances in this case seemed improperly prepared for by BC United caucus leader Kevin Falcon.

“These are the kind for things that, probably, Kevin Falcon should have considered in advance of making the decision that he made,” Olsen said Monday, referring to Falcon’s sudden and largely secret deal to collapse the party and pull back its candidate nominations.

“Because basically LAMC has been left scrambling to clean up the mess that he created by not considering his staff that have served him and all of our constituency staff or all of our caucus staff,” added Olsen.

Olsen said he is optimistic there will be sufficient funds in the BC United caucus to pay all of the severance, but that’s not a certainty.

“There are people who have served his party very well, people who I’ve worked alongside in this building for the last four or seven years. People who’ve worked in this building for decades, who were not considered in this decision, were left for us to sort of clean up the mess as he sprints off stage left.”