Ontario taxpayers paid $173,000 in severance to the man Premier Dalton McGuinty sent to the provincial lottery corporation to downplay government lottery scandals, Hamilton Centre Andrea Horwath revealed today.

Jim Warren, a close, former aide to McGuinty, went from his job in the Premier’s Office to a new, senior post at Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) that paid $189.921.73 annually. Just over one year later on his way out the door, Warren bagged $362,371.90 in 2007, according to public salary disclosure documents released last week.

“Just so everyone understands -- Jim Warren was the Premier’s crony who was sent to OLG to minimize the fallout over the McGuinty government’s lottery scandals. He was there a short time, but the government saw fit to give him a $173,000 raise on his way out the door,” Horwath told the Ontario Legislature during Question Period.

“Was Mr. Warren’s 91 per cent pay increase the Premier’s way of rewarding a political friend for taking the lottery scandal heat for his government? Will the Premier explain why taxpayers are on the hook for this disgusting example of McGuinty government pork barrelling?”

Warren’s $173,000 severance equals 69 workers getting a minimum wage of $10 an hour for a full year, Horwath said. Elsewhere in Ontario, 200,000 workers have lost their jobs as manufacturers continue to flee the province in the absence of a McGuinty government strategy to keep them here.

The lottery corporation is again embroiled in scandal, this time for concealing information from the Privacy Commissioner about a suspect lottery win, Horwath said. She questioned what “miracle” Warren performed to warrant $173,000 for leaving his job and already-generous pay package.

“At today’s minimum wage of $8.75 an hour, it would take a worker 9.5 years to take in the windfall Warren collected in one fell swoop for quitting,” said Horwath.