Earlier, Public Eye reported five top bureaucrats had left government following last week's re-organization. But some of the survivors may be envying the dead. Bob de Faye, previously deputy minister and chief executive officer of the public sector employers' council secreteriat, has been demoted to an associate deputy minister. Also demoted to an associate is Annette Antoniak at the British Columbia Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat, Rick Connoll, formerly in charge of skills, development and labour, Joan Hesketh, who continues to head the environmental assessment office, and David Woodward, deputy minister of strategic initiatives and corporate services at health.

But the most surprising reduction in rank is Diane Rabbani's. Ms. Rabbani was considered a prize catch when she joined government in 2003 as the head of the B.C. Leadership Centre and eventually the public service agency as a whole - putting her in charge of human resources across government. But now she too has been drummed out of the deputy minister corp. and made an associate.