Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister says he fired six managers at the provincial crop insurance corporation because he wants the insurer to take a new direction.
Bob Bjornerud said the decision to dismiss former general manager Stan Benjamin and five others without cause in July was not political.
The others were the executive managers responsible for human resources and compliance and investigations, and the manager of compliance and investigations at the Melville head office, and the Region 1 and customer service office managers in Saskatoon.
Bjornerud said changes are likely after the completion of a program review and implementing them will be easier with new people in place.
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Meyers Norris Penny is expected to deliver its report to Bjornerud by the end of September.
But agriculture critic Pat Atkinson said the employees had nearly 100 years of collective experience and would have been valuable during the transition.
“It sends a chilling message,” she said, adding that she has heard younger employees are leaving the corporation in the wake of the firings.
Atkinson said the NDP worked hard to professionalize the public service and take politics out of it. She said she believes the new general manager, Cam Swan, is a political appointment. Swan had previously worked for the corporation but was most recently working in Alberta.
Pot calls kettle black
Bjornerud said Atkinson is being hypocritical. In 1992 when the NDP assumed power, the government fired eight crop insurance managers, including Jim Walters, the then-mayor of Melville. He had worked for the government for 20 years and was a vice-president at the corporation.
“Ron Osika is another name that comes to mind,” Bjornerud said, referring to the former crop insurance employee turned Liberal MLA, who served as a cabinet minister with Atkinson in the coalition government.
Bjornerud said severance packages with two of the managers have been settled, two others are close and the remaining two are still negotiating.
Participation in crop insurance is up, with about nine percent more acres insured this year, he said.
