• FOIP shows $6.6 million in severance paid over 3 years
• Some payouts over $300,000

CALGARY, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released documents obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) today showing that the R.M. of Wood Buffalo (Fort McMurray) paid out $6.6 million in severance to 68 dismissed R.M. staff between 2011 and 2013.

Most of the termination agreements include ‘non-disclosure clauses.’

Four severance agreements paid out between $321,000 and $354,000. Five agreements paid out between $208,000 and $288,000. Twelve agreements paid out were between $106,000 and $199,000 and 11 agreements were between $11,000 and $96,000. The names of the recipients were redacted from the documents.

“These documents make clear that something is causing a massive turnover of staff at the R.M of Wood Buffalo and that these staff are being paid incredible sums of money for their signature on non-disclosure agreements,” said CTF Alberta Director Derek Fildebrandt. “Wood Buffalo taxpayers should be given answers as to why they’ve paid out such huge sums to so many people in such a short period of time.”

A second set of documents obtained by the CTF shows that in place of some of the employees let go, it appears that many of their replacements were from Toronto and Winnipeg, and paid generous housing and living allowances for their commute.

The CTF filed the FOI requests for documents after it received anonymous tips from the Wood Buffalo area suggesting we dig into the numbers.  

Last week, Glen Laubenstein suddenly resigned without explanation from his $533,795 a year position as Chief Administrative Officer of Wood Buffalo. KPMG is currently conducting an “accountability, integrity and transparency” audit.

“Something is clearly up with the internal operations of Wood Buffalo right now, and the public is left entirely in the dark about it,” said Fildebrandt. “We are looking forward to the results of the KPMG audit currently underway, but what we have unearthed today may warrant further investigation. We are calling on the Province of Alberta to conduct a thorough and forensic audit of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo to get to the bottom of this.”

“This is an excellent example of why the province should create an independent Municipal Auditor General,” concluded Fildebrandt.  

Further information can be found in the backgrounder HERE

FOIP documents obtained from Wood Buffalo can be found HERE (this website will be updated with additional FOIP documents as they become available)