A newly created position designed to raise the Northwest Territories’ profile in Ottawa will cost up to an estimated $440,000 per year, the premier says.
RJ Simpson gave that figure in the legislature in response to a written question from Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins.
Joe Dragon, who was previously the principal secretary in Simpson’s office, is the GNWT’s newly appointed senior envoy to the Government of Canada.
Hawkins said Dragon, according to Simpson’s figures, is receiving “more than the prime minister gets paid.”
Dragon’s salary range as senior envoy is between $261,000 and $327,000, Simpson said, and the annual cost rises to $440,000 if the senior envoy is paid at the top end of the scale and benefits are included.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney is paid just under $420,000 a year. (Simpson is paid about $215,000, plus a series of other benefits and allowances.)
“This role is designed to foster strong relationships with federal political offices in Ottawa while leveraging the renewed national interest in Canada’s North,” Simpson said in the legislature on Wednesday.
“The senior envoy serves as a dedicated resource, ensuring that GNWT perspectives are effectively conveyed in federal decision-making processes whenever possible.
“The success of this position will in part be measured by the level of engagement and resulting outcomes, including advocacy achievements and policy influences.”
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Simpson said Dragon’s performance will be partly tracked according to “new funding commitments secured.”
‘Something we can’t even measure’
Hawkins, who has been skeptical of the senior envoy’s role since it was announced in February, told Cabin Radio there was no way the envoy could deliver value for money in Ottawa.
“There’s no measurable in this. This is a lot of money for something we can’t even measure,” Hawkins said.
He wants the territorial government to hire an external lobbying firm instead, which he said could cost less money and would be more likely to deliver results.
Hawkins characterized Simpson as sending a “friend to Ottawa” without a clear mandate.
“I’m really questioning the value he’s providing there,” Hawkins said of Dragon, though he said his view might change if the envoy sat down with regular MLAs to hear their priorities for federal relations – and then delivered.
“That’s how I think he could do it. He sits down with us, comes up with a focused wish list and shows us how he’s moving the files forward,” Hawkins said. “I would become his biggest champion.”
