Still More Questions Than Answers on Severance

St. John's, NL (July 25, 2025) Tony Wakeham, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and MHA for Stephenville-Port au Port, today released the following statement:

One week after it was revealed that the Liberal Cabinet had voted secretly to give itself bonuses of up to $48,000, there are now far more questions than answers.

John Hogan and John Abbott said they weren't at the meeting where this was decided. Gerry Byrne said on VOCM that clearly the voters didn't want secret payments to politicians, but couldn't explain why he thought voters were okay with this in March when he voted for it.

Meanwhile, former Premier Furey claims to have rejected the payment. Bernard Davis and Sarah Stoodley say they support the decision to reverse, but didn't confirm they voted for it.

The only person who seems to be supportive of the policy is former Minister Andrew Parsons. The Premier's Office confirmed Mr. Parsons accepted his secret bonus, and that they will not be requiring a re-payment.

This begs many questions, like:

- Who actually put this item on the cabinet agenda? 

- An item can't pass at cabinet without a majority vote. Other than Andrew Parsons and Gerry Byrne, which Ministers voted for it?

- If "cabinet confidence" is stopping Ministers from confirming if they voted for the secret bonus, why doesn't the same cabinet confidence stop these same Ministers from speaking publicly about how they voted to reverse the policy? 

- In a media scrum yesterday, Liberal Premier Hogan said that his staff withheld information from him for 23 days. If true, how concerned is the Premier that he was kept out of the loop by his staff? 

I encourage every voter who has a Liberal candidate knock on their door this election cycle to ask for answers to these questions.

The PCs are ready to form a government that looks out for the interests of everyone, not just Liberal Cabinet Ministers. After 10 years, the Liberals have got to go.