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None of the other provinces or the Yukon paid out retention bonuses, according to responses from regulators in those jurisdictions.

The new regulatory system was supposed to roll out this year, but the timing is in question, in part, because Quebec has a constitutional challenge being deliberated by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The B.C. NDP government, which came into government in 2017, says the retention payments were approved by then-finance minister Mike de Jong and the B.C. Liberals in August 2016.

“I certainly don’t agree with the decision,” B.C. Finance Minister Carole James said recently. “I don’t agree with a lot of decisions (the former) government made in relation to white-collar crime, in relationship to money-laundering, in relation to lack of transparency in the area of real estate.”

James said, however, there was a contractual obligation requiring the bonuses to be paid.

She said she has been assured they were a one-time payment.

Also of concern to James is that while the BCSC was focused on this federal process, there was other work that needed to be done in B.C. on how to improve fine collection and enforcement.

A Postmedia investigation in 2017 found that more than half a billion dollars in BCSC penalties had gone unpaid in the past decade. James has directed the securities commission to improve that record.

In an interview, de Jong said the retention payments were meant to address the uncertainty created by moving to a co-operative system with the other provinces, where there were going to be changes in staffing and new positions associated with a national regulator.