How did Premier David Eby’s chief of staff Matt Smith land an extraordinary severance package that paid him one day’s compensation for every two days worked — when almost everyone in provincial politics thought Smith had resigned?

It’s a question New Democrats are left struggling to answer. And it’s the latest in a long line of examples of how an utterly broken severance system is ripping taxpayers off.

Smith was hired by Eby as his first chief of staff, on Oct. 22, 2022, at a salary of $241,365 annually. He left two years later, Dec. 21, 2024, with a $278,629 termination “settlement.” The bill to the public for two years work: $761,359.

The amount is obscene.

Most ordinary British Columbians only get one to two weeks (perhaps a month, at most) of severance for every year on the job, if laid off. Smith received one year’s pay for every two worked. You won’t find a teacher, nurse, firefighter or grocery store worker getting that kind of deal. It’s reserved only for the elite in provincial politics.

The timing of the golden parachute is also a slap in the face to the public.

It comes after the premier imposed a “hiring freeze” on the civil service, and demanded health authorities identify internal cost efficiencies.

You could fund two nurses for a year, and keep a rural hospital emergency room from closing, for the amount taxpayers just paid to give a soft landing to the premier’s top political strategist. You could pay a doctor’s salary for a rural........

© BIV