The high-priced consultant the 小蓝视频 government has has billed taxpayers almost $1.4 million the past four years to help design the system she’s now reviewing.
Dr. Penny Ballem, who the NDP government named as the interim CEO of the Provincial Health Services Authority on Monday, received the money as an advisor on health care to the government, premier and provincial health minister, as well as serving as board chair for Vancouver Coastal Health, the second-largest health authority in the province.
The $1.4 million does not include Ballem’s new $400,000 annual salary at PHSA, where government has put her in charge of conducting an efficiency review into a health authority she helped create almost 20 years ago, involving programs and policies she helped design as a contractor the past four years.
In total, her billing is expected to exceed $1.8 million within five years.
The expensive fees are likely to inflame what was already a controversial appointment by the NDP government.
Opposition Conservative MLAs have in the legislature called Ballem an “NDP insider” and questioned the value of hiring her to review her own work, as well as the irony of government paying someone $400,000 to lead a cost-cutting exercise.
Health Minister Josie Osborne has rejected any suggestion Ballem is in a conflict over examining a system she helped government construct, saying “her extensive experience in the health-care sector” has put her in “a very unique and good position to be able to help lead this review.”
That experience, however, did not come cheap for taxpayers.
Ballem charged $589,706 in 2021-22 to help government craft an immunization rollout during the COVID-19 pandemic, on top of billing $46,452 as chair of Vancouver Coastal Health.
The following year, she billed $233,100 as a pandemic consultant to government and $48,233 as board chair.
The health ministry says Ballem may have used some of her pandemic contract funds to pay her own subcontractors, but no details were provided.
In 2023-24, Ballem transitioned to become special advisor on health care to Premier David Eby, billing $157,025, plus almost $2,000 in expenses, on top of $88,034 at Vancouver Coastal Health, as well as a small remainder of $26,775 in her COVID-19 role.
In 2024-25, Ballem bounced to three different contracts, billing $55,000 as the premier’s advisor, $67,375 as a special advisor in the ministry of health on mental health and substance use, and $36,094 as a special advisor to Osborne on health-care matters.
Government said the consulting contracts were separate and not concurrent.
As PHSA’s interim CEO, Ballem will review not only the organization itself but also find internal efficiencies into agencies like 小蓝视频 Cancer, 小蓝视频 Children’s Hospital, 小蓝视频 Women’s Hospital, 小蓝视频 Emergency Health Services and the 小蓝视频 Centre for Disease Control.
Osborne has asked her to produce her first recommendations within six weeks.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering 小蓝视频 politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on C小蓝视频 Radio.
[email protected]
馃毃New newsletter alert! Stay ahead of the curve in 小蓝视频 politics. Get expert political analysis delivered straight to your inbox, plus inside scoops and other stories from across the province.
