Wakeham Releases Open Letter to Premier Hogan on Secret Liberal Bonuses

 

St. John’s, NL (July 21, 2025) - Today Tony Wakeham, Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and MHA for Stephenville – Port au Port, released the following open letter to Liberal Leader and Premier John Hogan:

 

 

Dear Premier Hogan,

 

It was revealed recently through investigative reporting that the Liberal Cabinet had decided to grant itself secret bonus payments of up to $48,000. These payments would be granted to Liberal Cabinet Ministers if they lost in the next election, or if they stepped down voluntarily and chose not to run again.

 

Once you became Liberal Leader and Premier, you elevated every member of your caucus except two to cabinet, ensuring that 91% of the Liberal caucus was covered under this secret bonus plan.

 

After this secret plan was exposed, you issued a statement on Friday afternoon reversing course. You said you were not aware of the decision, and that you were “revoking” the secret bonuses.

 

Setting aside how difficult it is to believe that the public service would not brief a new Premier on issues of compensation for Cabinet, your statement raises more questions than it provides answers.

 

If you are revoking the secret bonuses, it must mean that you believe the Liberal Cabinet made the wrong decision. So can you please clarify:

 

  1. Did now former Liberal Cabinet members Andrew Furey and Andrew Parsons already receive their secret bonus when they stepped down? If so, will the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador take swift action to recover these funds?
  2. There are eight members of your current Cabinet who supported this secret bonus scheme, and plan to run for the Liberal Party in the next election. They are:

 

Bernard Davis, Virginia Waters-Pleasantville

Lisa Dempster, Cartwright - L’Anse au Clair

Krista Lynn Howell, St. Barbe - L’Anse aux Meadows

Fred Hutton, Conception Bay East - Bell Island

Elvis Loveless, Fortune Bay - Cape La Hune

Pam Parsons, Harbour Grace - Port de Grave

Paul Pike, Burin - Grand Bank 

Sarah Stoodley, Mount Scio 

 

At a time when Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are struggling with the cost of living, are seeing crime rise in their communities, and have the worst healthcare of any province in Canada, these Liberal Cabinet Ministers thought it was appropriate to vote to give themselves a secret bonus of up to $48,000.

 

My question: do you support these eight individuals as candidates in the next election? How can voters in these districts believe for a second that these candidates have their constituents’ best interests at heart, when they supported this secret Liberal bonus scheme?

 

Restoring public trust cannot be done by a non-apology posted on social media. I call on you to do the right thing, and remove these eight candidates from the Liberal slate prior to the election.

 

If not, then voters will know where you really stand on this issue, and that your only regret is that you got caught. And voters can then make their views known at the ballot box.

 

In service of our great province,

Tony Wakeham