When the NDP government fired ex-Liberal leader Gordon Wilson last week, they didn't spare the slime as they booted his butt out the door.
Premier John Horgan lambasted Wilson for wasting taxpayers' money as the province's "LNG Advocate," saying there was little evidence Wilson actually did any work for his $150,000-a-year salary.
"No briefings, no reports, no memoranda," is how Horgan summed up Wilson's 3 1/2 years on the job.
Jobs Minister Bruce Ralston said the government did a "review" of Wilson's work and concluded he did little "other than to cash his cheques."
But a quick search of the government's own Open Information website turned up a long paper trail documenting Wilson's time in the position. A file containing Wilson's reports to the former Liberal government during his first 15 months on the job runs 180 pages long.
It contains a work plan, meeting summaries, a 50-page report entitled, "Research Findings and Recommendations," and 28 "Project Updates" submitted by Wilson to Shirley Bond, then the Liberal jobs minister.
Now Ralston is retracting his comments and apologizing to Wilson.
"I should have had these documents in front of me before I made my comments," Ralston told me Monday after I alerted his staff to the material on his own government's website.
Ralston said he will also advise Horgan to retract his comments and apologize to Wilson.
"I didn't have this information and I regret that," Ralston said.
The documents - which you can read for yourself - include a summary of separate reports filed to the previous government.
A memo from Wilson to Bond listed "multiple visits" to business locations in Prince Rupert, Terrace, Smithers, Kitimat, Prince George, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Hudson's Hope, Kamloops, Kelowna and Squamish with a report marked "completed" on May 9, 2014.
Another note detailed an LNG conference and trade show held May 21-23, 2014, where Wilson met with industry representatives and demonstrated an online LNG development tool.
The 50-page report from Wilson to Bond is labelled "executive summary," is dated Jan. 31, 2014, and includes a long list of contact persons in industry, municipalities and First Nations.
The 28 "Project Update" reports from Wilson to Bond are dated from December 2013 through December 2014.
The updates include notes from a long list of meetings between Wilson and industry stakeholders over the course of the year, a report from an "LNG supplier boot camp" in Kitimat, notes on meetings with the B.C. Construction Association, the B.C. Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists, and many other detailed work reports.
Keep in mind these documents cover only the first 15 months of Wilson's time on the job - from October 2013 to January 2015.
"There were multiple reports and documents created during the entire tenure of the program," said Wilson, who earlier threatened to sue Horgan and Ralston for defamation.
"The things they said about me are absolutely outrageous and untrue," Wilson said in an interview. "How could they do a 'review' of my work and not consider these documents? They never interviewed me or asked me a single question about the program before they fired me. What kind of 'review' is that?"
The 15-month document package was publicly posted on the government's Open Information website as a result of a 2015 freedom-of-information request.
Ralston confirmed it was the NDP that filed the request.
"It was one of hundreds of FOI requests our caucus made," he said.
He couldn't explain why he and Horgan publicly slimed Wilson for not filing reports about his work when the NDP already had the documents in hand.
He also couldn't explain how the review of Wilson's work hadn't turned up the documents.
Let's hope Wilson doesn't go through with his threatened lawsuit against Horgan and Ralston now, though I wouldn't blame him if he did. Any award for damages would be paid by B.C. taxpayers, though the retraction and apology should mitigate the amount.
All in all, it's a disgusting example of sleazy, gutter politics from the very top of an NDP government that promised to do things differently.
