Premier Tony Wakeham is raising questions about office and administrative supports wtill being afforded to former Liberal premier Andrew Furey after he left the Premier’s Office.
Wakeham brought the issue up to VOCM News following an unrelated interview at Confederation Building yesterday.
The Premier says government has discovered that the former Liberal government reinstated a policy – previously eliminated by the Dwight Ball government in 2016 – whereby outgoing premiers get an office, and administrative support for a period of up to three years after leaving office.
Wakeham says the office, which calls “political,” is located in the executive suite of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, and there is no end date listed on the contract.
In a statement to VOCM News, Andrew Furey says that as a tenured associate professor with MUN’s Faculty of Medicine, he has office space and administrative support, and outgoing premiers are granted similar systems due to the “long-lasting responsibilities attached to the role.”
He says “to avoid unnecessary duplication,” he has one office, which is located two doors down from his old one in the Health Sciences. The current space, he argues, has “enhanced security features” given what he calls “credible threats that were anticipated and received.”
Furey argues that such supports were “customary” under previous PC governments, and is limited to a period of three years.
