Groups Demand Ottawa Cancel $500,000 Severance for Disgraced Commissioner

Christiane Ouimet was given a sizeable severance package despite a scathing job performance review from the auditor general.

A coalition of more than 30 advocacy groups is demanding the government cancel Ouimet’s $500,000 severance, claiming the former integrity commissioner who abruptly resigned last fall doesn’t deserve to be rewarded for her poor performance. The Government Ethics Coalition says severance packages aren’t usually given to people who voluntarily retired and normally amount to only one to two weeks’ pay for every year worked. Shortly after Ouimet stepped down Auditor General Sheila Fraser released a report that found she had investigated only a handful of the hundreds of complaints her office received. Ouimet subsequently went missing for months and ignored calls to appear before a Commons committee before finally surfacing in February. She is scheduled to finally testify at the Commons committee Thursday.