The case of the golden handshake

Our astute readers will, of course, be familiar with the sainted Lee Doney. A senior bureaucrat with more than 30 years of experience in the civil service, the craggy deputy minister of labour retired back in April 2004 - an occasion commemorated with a column penned by The Vancouver Sun's Vaughn Palmer. But a little more than a year later, the premier's office has announced he'll be working under contract as Gordon Campbell's special advisor on labour bargaining. And how much will he be making as a special advisor, you may wonder? Well, it turns out Mr. Doney will earn a maximum of $200,000 over the ten months covered by that contract - which was awarded to his company RLD Strategies Ltd. A fair sum perhaps - given his experience and the fact he will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But let us not forget that, while working on this contract, he will continue collecting his collecting his government pension - which could be perceived as double-dipping.