Province has paid more than $129K to lawyers, crisis communication consultant

More than $129,000 has been paid to a law firm that specialises in labour law and a communications specialist to deal with public sector negotiations.

• NAPE president says money spent on communications consultant 'not necessary'
• Province paid law firm $40K for 3 weeks of work: NAPE

That amount was released through access to information requests filed by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE).

This is a colossal waste of money.- Jerry Earle

NAPE says contracts with Cathy Dornan and the McInnes Cooper law firm mean that — on top of what it pays staff — the provincial government spent more than $350 per hour on the upcoming public sector negotiations.

"In three months, during a time when people were being laid off, services being cut, and offices closed, this government paid Ms. Dornan approximately $60,000," said Jerry Earle, president of NAPE, in a release.

"This is a colossal waste of money that, frankly, doesn't pass the sniff test. To put it into perspective, this is about $7,000 more than the average working person makes in this province in a year and almost three times what a minimum wage earner makes a year."

Dornan was brought on by McInnes Cooper earlier this year when the law firm was hired to help the government with public sector negotiations.

'Tax dollars are being wasted'

In July, the Liberal government parted ways with Dornan, who was brought in as an external communications specialist.

At that time, Finance Minister Cathy Bennett said in a statement that McInnes Cooper no longer required Dornan's service.

Bennett said government decided at the end of June that communications for the collective bargaining process could be completed internally.

According to NAPE, the information released in ATIPP requests showed that Dornan was duplicating work that is normally done by the in-house communications staff on matters unrelated to public sector bargaining.

"NAPE and the people of the province were told that Ms. Dornan was taken on contract with McInnes Cooper to provide advice on communications regarding collective bargaining — that was bad enough," said Earle.

"Now we find out that Ms. Dornan was writing tweets for government and doing presentations for the Minister of Finance for groups like chartered accountants. All while billing taxpayers about $19,000 a month."

Earle said NAPE intends to file further access to information requests "so the people of the province can know how their tax dollars are being wasted."