Campbell deputy calls it quits
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Updated: October 06, 2009 6:35 PM
Jessica McDonald has resigned as deputy minister to Premier Gordon Campbell, after six years doing what Campbell describes as an “incredibly taxing job.”
As head of the B.C. public service, McDonald’s last project was to preside over recession budget cuts that resulted in 203 positions being eliminated to reduce costs. She is replaced effective Tuesday by Allan Seckel, a lawyer who has been deputy attorney general for the past six years.
Campbell praised McDonald for making the B.C. public service one of the most desirable employers in the country. Last fall that effort led to the biggest controversy of her low-profile term in the premier’s office, when she approved a new salary structure that increased the maximum salaries for B.C.’s 150 deputy and assistant deputy ministers.
With a booming economy that led to 60 per cent turnover in key senior management jobs in recent years, McDonald raised the salary for assistant deputies by an average 21 per cent. The new pay scale makes the chief forester and other administrators who deliver government programs eligible to make up to $195,000 a year, although most still earn less.
The maximum for the premier’s deputy went up to $348,600 a year, a 43 per cent jump. Campbell noted that McDonald took no increase to her own $232,000 salary at the time. Seckel will be paid $295,000, which is “$10,000 less than the city manager of Vancouver,” Campbell said, adding that the job requires being on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In a memo to government staff Monday, McDonald said she will be available for the next three months to assist Seckel with the transition.
“I have no immediate plans for my future, other than to spend time with my family and consider the next phase of my career,” she wrote.
Campbell said any serving deputy to the premier isn’t in a position to look for other work, and there are restrictions on what they can do when they leave government.
“If in fact there’s an area where there’s perceived to be a conflict, she has to get permission from the premier’s office for the first 12 months,” he said.
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