A highly paid bureaucrat hand-picked by Premier Dalton McGuinty to be his climate-change adviser has quietly left the government following criticism of his salary and the province's failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the Star has learned.

Hugh MacLeod, formerly a senior health ministry official, left his $320,695-a-year job as head of the government's climate-change secretariat Feb. 5 and starts Tuesday as chief executive of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute in Edmonton.

The move comes just four months after McGuinty defended MacLeod's role but had difficulty listing any tangible achievements from his almost two years in the post – where his pay, as revealed by the Star, was funnelled through a Toronto hospital to skirt civil service pay guidelines.

Shortly after that revelation, the annual report from Ontario's environment commissioner in December slammed the government's climate-change plan for a "lack of vision," leaving it short of measures needed to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets.

"If the premier can't say that he (MacLeod) has accomplished anything, then taxpayers have a right to ask where did more than half-a-million dollars go ... over two years, and for what?" said Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod, party accountability critic.

The secretariat MacLeod headed continues to operate, co-ordinating the climate change initiatives of 11 government ministries and provincial agencies, although it is not clear if MacLeod will be replaced.

McGuinty can't afford to be wasting taxpayers' money while his government is struggling with a record $24.7 billion deficit, added MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton), who is no relation to Hugh MacLeod.

Attempts to reach Hugh MacLeod through his new employer were unsuccessful.

The NDP's environment critic said the problem over the climate change plan, as evidenced by Environment Commissioner Gord Miller's finding that "much more needs to be done," lies with McGuinty.

NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) said the Liberals are relying too heavily on their strategy to fight global warming by closing polluting coal-fired electricity generating stations by 2014.

"The environment commissioner said they had precious little beyond that, so I think the larger problem is in the premier's office. Hugh MacLeod is not going to be able to act outside the political envelope the premier gives him," Tabuns said.

"Very little came out of the efforts for the last few years, frankly ... they still don't meet the climate targets," Tabuns added.

Ontario has committed to shrinking greenhouse gas emissions to 6 per cent below 1990 levels by 2014 and 15 per cent by 2020.

An environment ministry report released late last year found the province has initiatives in place to reach 56 per cent of the 2020 target.

Officials in McGuinty's office said they are not sure how long MacLeod's job may remain vacant and they are "sorry to see him go."

"We thank Hugh for his work, but understand that he chose to pursue a new career option in Alberta," said Jane Almeida, spokeswoman for McGuinty. "His departure is relatively recent and decisions on a replacement haven't yet been made."

That uncertainty is not a good sign, said Tabuns.

"It confirms the climate file is a low priority for these folks."

MacLeod's job was to track and co-ordinate more than 100 policies on climate change through various ministries, provide advice on policy development and to sit on a cabinet committee studying the economy.

The premier's office would not comment directly when asked if MacLeod's contract entitled him to severance, saying that as a member of the Ontario Public Service his income will be reported on the annual "sunshine list" disclosing public-sector salaries above $100,000.

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McGuinty acknowledged last fall, after a Star story exposing civil service salaries being funnelled through hospitals where the recipients did not work, that it "offends the spirit" of the disclosure legislation to have salaries "buried away." He vowed to end the practice.

When asked at the time to point out achievements by MacLeod in his post, McGuinty was vague.

"That's a very important responsibility. It's one that hasn't received a lot of attention lately but as somebody once said, `the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment' and we've been spending a lot of time talking about the economy lately. But as the economy grows stronger, more and more of our attention, this is the attention of humanity, will focus on the single greatest long-term challenge confronting us, and that is global warming and climate change," McGuinty said.