Dollars for Dingwall

As the Conservatives prepare to take charge of the nation’s business, there are more parting gifts for ex Liberal officials. This time it’s former Mint CEO David Dingwall, who left the Mint under a cloud of controversy in September who has collected a rather hefty severance package from the federal government.

Originally involved in a long drawn out investigation, the Federal Liberal government had stated that as Dingwall had resigned, he was not entitled to any severance. Only problem is that it turns out that the embattled Dingwall had not resigned, but had been fired. A handy fact, apparently not shared with the nation, or even the Prime Minister at the time Paul Martin.

In fact, the Prime Minister and his soon to be ex government look even worse with this weekend’s pay out. It seems that they were aware of the arbitrators’ decision as early as January 20, 2006, but chose not to divulge that information until after the January 23rd election. Obviously realizing that the decision to pay out such a large severance wouldn’t do much for their re-election chances, but then again not disclosing it only confirms the worst thoughts of many Canadians about excess under the Liberals of the last ten years.

On Saturday, as one of the last duties of the Liberal government Dingwall was issued a check for $418,000, he will also be entitled to his associated pension benefits. The word entitled surely caused a controversy during the hearings into his spending proclivities at the Mint, at one point the former Liberal cabinet minister stated that he was “entitled to his entitlements”, a comment that raised the ire of many across the nation.

Of even more comedic nature was the controversy over chewing gum, as Dingwall had expensed his purchase of gum, despite a salary of 277,000 a year courtesy of the mint. The chewing gum fiasco proved to be the grist of many an article in the newspapers and satirical content on the nation’s television shows.

418,000 dollars makes for a pretty nice golden parachute, it also should buy Dingwall more than enough gum to help him in his time of forced retirement. The payout certainly will give Canadians quite a bit to chew over for the next little while.