Deputy minister Paul Genest has been moved from his post at the Pan/Parapan American Games Secretariat (PPAGS) to a position as a special advisor in the ministry of training, colleges and universities. He is being replaced at the Secretariat by Steven Davidson, but will retain his position at the Office for Francophone Affairs.
The decision was made by Cabinet Office on June 26 to move Genest, Padma De Souza, spokesperson at the Secretariat, said, even though Genest's office voicemail on Monday still identified him as the deputy minister for the Secretariat.
The move to TCU is not entirely alien to Genest, who before entering the public service was CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities.
He'll be a special advisor responsible for negotiating strategic mandate agreements with all Ontario universities, De Souza said
Genest had been criticized earlier this year by Tories who claimed that his compensation, <a href="http://www.qpbriefing.com/2013/05/01/sousa-defends-deputy-minister-in-torys-pan-am-attack/">third-highest on the 2013 Sunshine List</a>, was outsized to his duties at both the Secretariat and the Office for Francophone Affairs.
In May, PC Pan/Parapan American Games critic Rod Jackson told QP Briefing "Let's face it. It's not the third-largest bureaucracy out there. It's not the third-largest budget. I'm not sure how you justify that."
Jackson said Monday afternoon that Genest's move indicated someone in the Liberal government was concerned about his high pay.
"I have to wonder if someone opened their eyes, and realized that you had a DM who was making more than a lot of other DMs. It's about $160,000 more give or take than Steven Davidson," Jackson said. "You don't get moved for no reason."
Michael Chan, minister responsible for the 2015 games, called Jackson's accusations irresponsible.
"The position of a critic is to criticize, but it does not mean one has to criticize endlessly, and to be so wrong and so often," Chan said. The minister emphasized that personnel decisions are the purview of Secretary of the Cabinet Peter Wallace, and that while Genest's move was approved by cabinet his office had nothing to do with the move. Moreover, Chan said that Jackson's criticisms hurt the province and the country in the eyes of the international community.
"When we face the country, the international community, we have to be careful." Chan's praise for Genest was somewhat more subdued than his criticism of Jackson, though he did say "he's a fine gentleman" with experience in both the private and public sector.
Jackson repeated his claim his office learned about Genests' 2012 salary from a "brown envelope" from within the Secretariat, and said that his office has also heard criticism of Genest's tenure over the last year.
"It's gotten worse, not better," Jackson says. However, he says that the final judgment at the feet of the government, and warned that the Games, and the $1.4 billion budget for them, has the potential to "run away" from the Liberals.
"The last thing this government needs is for a file like this to go off the rails," says Jackson. "It could be Michael Chan's first and last scandal."

Genest out as DM for Pan Am Games

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