The position offered a four-year contract with an annual salary of $270,000 and an opportunity to earn an additional performance-based 10 percent bonus

The President of Community Partnerships position at Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) created especially for premier Doug Ford’s friend Ron Taverner has remained vacant since Taverner rejected the position last September 10, iPolitics reports.

The Ontario premier faced criticism late last year when his good friend and former Supt. Toronto Police Commissioner Ron Taverner was appointed commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

Although Ford claimed he had “zero influence” in the decision, he admitted that he failed to recuse himself from the cabinet during Taverner’s approval process.

The position offered a four-year contract with an annual salary of $270,000 and an opportunity to earn an additional performance-based 10 percent bonus. Taverner rejected the OCS job to apply for the OPP position. He later quit due to public outrage after citing “the controversy” surrounding his appointment.

Documents acquired by iPolitics also suggest that several other OCS positions, such as community partnerships, community affairs, and community outreach were also unstaffed.

“As our government developed the retail and distribution model currently in place, the Ontario Cannabis Store evolved and followed an organizational design process and created a corporate security and resource protection team,” OCS spokesperson Robert Gibson said in a statement, suggesting that those roles may be filled by employees with other titles. “This team is led by a former senior police officer and is responsible for fraud prevention, engagement with local law enforcement and physical security,” he added.

Ford successfully campaigned for the premier of Ontario in 2018 after railing against “insiders and elites” and promising to act “for the people” of the province. The OCS says that as a matter of policy, it does not comment on issues of staffing and personnel.