Premier Doug Ford holds a press conference outside of his office following the June 20, 2019 cabinet shuffle. Richard Lautens/Toronto Star

TORONTO—A document obtained by iPolitics shows the proposed budget for Premier Doug Ford’s now-shuttered transformation office was more than $2.2 million — which a senior source says was approved in that range.

The office was created in November, with Peter Fenwick appointed the deputy minister in charge of the office and the government’s strategic transformation adviser.

Late Thursday, the government announced it was dissolving the office and letting Fenwick go, “effective immediately.”

The decision was announced in a memo, obtained by iPolitics, after the Toronto Star reported earlier in the evening that Fenwick has known Ford’s ex-chief of staff, Dean French, for a “long time” and bought insurance from him.

French resigned two weeks ago after it was reported he had direct personal ties to two new government appointments. The appointments were rescinded within 24 hours.

Since then several more patronage appointments, with direct ties to French, have been reported.

Three senior sources tell iPolitics French “handpicked” Fenwick for the deputy minister job.

READ MORE: The public may never know if Dean French is investigated

Part of the treasury board document outlining the proposed 2019-20 budget for the transformation office was obtained by iPolitics on Thursday. The document sets out a $2,289,800 budget for 11 full time equivalent positions, all of which had proposed salaries over $100,000.

Four senior sources confirmed the veracity of the document and a senior government source said the numbers contained in it are essentially what Fenwick ended up getting for his office’s budget.

The premier’s office refused to comment on the budget, the salaries, or explain the value the office provided.

In an interview with iPolitics, NDP MPP Marit Stiles accused Ford of “hiding,” adding, “the premier needs to come clean and answer questions about it.”

Ford has not held a news conference since June 20, when he revealed his new cabinet. Later that day, the Globe and Mail and Global News broke the patronage scandal and the next day French resigned.

In an emailed statement Friday, a spokesperson for the cabinet office — which is in charge of the civil service — noted that the transformation office no longer exists.

“As you know, the secretary of cabinet announced the transformation office has been dissolved,” spokesperson Craig Sumi said.

“With respect to the budget of the office, we can confirm that the salaries of any position within the public service would have been within the salary range for those classifications,” he added.

“As the secretary noted in his memo yesterday, transformation remains a critical priority for the government and the Ontario Public Service, and we will continue to drive this agenda collaboratively across ministries.”

Fenwick did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Below is a full list of the proposal for the transformation office’s budget that one senior conservative source said was put forward by Fenwick. The document calls the proposed costs “estimates” for the office’s “core team.”

Salaries: Peter Fenwick: $325,000 Director of operations: $164,900 Senior portfolio manager: $127,300 Executive assistant: $127,300 Executive adviser/business integration lead: $103,900 Legislation/regulation review and compliance: $199,000 Five special advisers at $127,300 each: $636,500

Employee benefits: $218,900

Other direct operating expenditures: $387,000

The government’s online directory shows seven people, including Fenwick, worked in the transformation office at the time it was shuttered. Some of them have job titles that are different than those proposed in the budget document.

In Fenwick’s case, the proposed salary is above the range for deputy ministers and in a separate statement on Thursday the government said his salary was within the deputy minister’s range of $234,080 and $320,130.

A review of the salaries paid to other executive assistants of deputy ministers, on the Sunshine List, shows others also making over $100,000 for the job. In some cases they hold two titles, for example: executive assistant and senior policy advisor.

The proposal sent to the treasury board said the estimated costs were put at “levels that would attract senior level staff from within the (Ontario Public Service).”

READ MORE: ‘We need to be better,’ minister says as Ford government rocked by nepotism controversy

Then-head of the civil service Steve Orsini described Fenwick’s job in a memo released in November: “Peter will lead the System Transformation Office in Cabinet Office to support cross-cutting transformational initiatives that require an enterprise response to systemic change.”

Stiles called the job description a “word salad” that “says a lot of nothing.”

“There’s a lot of questions about what this office did or didn’t do,” she added.

Government House Leader Paul Calandra told iPolitics he couldn’t speak to the office’s budget, but added: “It did not meet the priorities that we had set, it hadn’t met the goals and they disbanded it.”

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