Former premier Dalton McGuinty will pocket about $313,000 in severance pay from 23 years in Ontario politics after resigning this week as MPP for Ottawa South.

The payout to McGuinty, who announced his resignation last October, is based on a formula that gives MPPs with more than eight years’ service 1.5 times their average annual salary for their highest three consecutive years.

“Dalton McGuinty left, I think, in a shroud of scandal . . . it was time for him to go,” Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean—Carleton) said Thursday.

Unlike federal MPs, members of provincial legislature do not have a pension plan.

If Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak were to quit as an MPP, his severance would be about $271,000 under the formula in the Legislative Assembly Act.

Premier Kathleen Wynne hinted she would soon call a byelection in McGuinty’s riding even though, by law, she has until December to do so.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Wynne suggested the seat could be filled at the same time contests are held some time this summer in London West and Windsor Tecumseh, left vacant by the retirements of former cabinet ministers Chris Bentley and Dwight Duncan.

With files from Robert Benzie.

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