B.C.’s economy may be stalled, but there’s one definite growth sector of employment: Special advisors to Premier David Eby and his government.
The Eby administration has tapped yet another friend and insider to its growing list, hiring former NDP cabinet minister George Heyman as the special advisor on public sector bargaining.
The news came out on Thursday, after the Opposition noticed Heyman had updated his LinkedIn profile with the position. It turns out, he started the job in April. Government never made the appointment, salary or terms public until it was caught out by the BC Conservatives.
“We think this should have been fully disclosed to the public,” said Conservative labour critic Kiel Giddens.
“Bringing in an insider for a backroom deal on such a big negotiation, and presumably the other public sector negotiations coming up, this is kind of big news. And this is not something that has been publicized whatsoever.
“The finance minister can’t get it done at the bargaining table and they are trying to find workarounds again.”
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey’s office defended the hiring, saying Heyman, a former president of the BCGEU from 1999 to 2008, was uniquely positioned to help the NDP government with bargaining. More than 400,000 public sector workers are negotiating new contracts this summer. Heyman is to be paid “a maximum of $58,000” for roughly four months of work ending July 31, according to the ministry.
“As a former BCGEU president and cabinet minister, George brings a wealth of experience in negotiations and understands the value of BC’s public sector workers,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
Still, all the special advisor positions are starting to come at a political cost to the BC NDP.
Eby had to fire his special advisor to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Michael Bryant, last month after blowback to Bryant’s six-month, $150,000 contract to study an area the premier promised to act on two years ago.
The premier continues to insist he needs outside eyes to tackle the province’s biggest problems, though many wonder why he can’t just use the immense resources already at his disposal, including numerous government agencies, thousands of civil servants and billions of dollars.
Eby has hired numerous special advisors since becoming premier in 2022, including: Doug White, the past chief of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, to advise on Indigenous reconciliation; Lisa Helps, the former mayor of Victoria, to advise on housing; Penny Ballem, the former Vancouver Coastal Health board chair, to advise on health; and law professor Craig Jones, to advise on legal matters.
Each came with a large taxpayer-funded salary and vague deliverables.
Some advisors last longer than others—White is still in his $275,000-a-year job. Helps was given another government job in housing policy in 2023. Ballem has rolled through $1.8 million in various roles over five years, and most recently was named as interim CEO of the Provincial Health Services Authority at $350,000 a year.
The BC NDP is likely hoping Heyman can talk down the BCGEU from the hard line it has taken early in negotiations on improved wages, benefits and working conditions. The government is broke, with a deficit believed to be in the $12-billion range, a sluggish economy and a looming U.S. trade war. Every one per cent increase in compensation for the 593,547 public sector employees costs $532 million.
The finance ministry argued a special advisor in negotiations is not unusual, with Paul Faoro hired for advice in 2022 contract talks and Lee Doney in 2012 and 2014.
But retaining those non-partisan negotiation experts are not the same as hiring a former NDP cabinet minister and MLA just eight months into retirement. Which is likely why the government didn’t publicize Heyman’s deal, and tried to slide it under the radar.
“At the end of the day, they know taxpayers and the public wouldn’t accept this,” said Giddens. “The government is obviously desperate, so they are making decisions out of desperation. And they are so out of ideas they are using friends and insiders as workarounds.”
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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