Top Ontario bureaucrat fired as Star reveals his longtime ties to Premier Doug Ford’s former chief of staff, Dean French

Thestar.com
July 5, 2019
Rob Ferguson

The Ontario government’s first “strategic transformation advisor” was abruptly fired Thursday night as the Toronto Star revealed his long-time ties to Premier Doug Ford’s former chief of staff, Dean French, who left government two weeks ago amid a cronyism scandal.

Peter Fenwick, a senior bureaucrat in the cabinet office, was dismissed “effective immediately” by the province’s top civil servant, Steven Davidson.

Davidson said the decision followed an evaluation of the role created last fall to help government departments become more efficient.

“As a result of the review, the transformation office in cabinet office is being dissolved,” he wrote in a memo to deputy ministers obtained by the Star.

“I want to thank Peter for his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”

A senior government source told the Star the review of Fenwick’s office began a week after French’s sudden departure.

“We didn’t feel the objectives of his original appointment were being met,” the source said privately in order to discuss internal deliberations.

“We now have an expanded cabinet that can better achieve the objectives of the transformation office internally,” added the source, referring to a shuffle two weeks ago that increased Ford’s cabinet by one-third.

No information on severance pay for Fenwick was available. He was in the job for eight months.

As first revealed on thestar.com, Fenwick has been a life insurance customer of French’s for at least 20 years.

Hailed as a “distinguished technology innovation leader” when hired for the brand new position last November, Fenwick confirmed his relationship with French to the newspaper as questions continued to swirl about the influence of the premier’s former right-hand man in hiring and appointments.

“I have known him for a long time,” Fenwick told the Star when asked if French, a veteran Etobicoke insurance broker, played any role in his recruitment for the job that pays in the deputy minister salary range of $234,080 to $320,130 annually.

“All I can tell you is I’ve been a customer of Dean, so now technically a customer of London Life,” Fenwick added, noting their relationship dates to the “late ’90s.”

French stepped down as Ford’s chief of staff on June 28, just hours after the premier revoked lucrative patronage appointments French had arranged for his wife’s cousin and a friend of his son.

Following another revelation of a French connection to an appointment last week, a government insider told the Star’s Robert Benzie that Ford “hit the roof.” He pledged an internal review of “all pending appointments” and sent a damage-control memo to his Progressive Conservative MPPs stating French “no longer has any influence in this government.”

The Liberals called Thursday for the legislature’s ethics watchdog to conduct an independent review of all government appointments since Ford took power a year ago.

Fenwick, who was previously managing director at his consulting firm Fenwick & Associates and senior provincial director at Alberta Health Services in charge of innovation, said he first got a call about the Ontario job last year from Steve Orsini, then the province’s top civil servant as secretary of cabinet.

“I appreciate you’re an investigative journalist and I respect your profession,” he replied when asked how Orsini got his name.

“All I can tell you is I have a history of working in both the private and public sector,” added Fenwick, who has a joint MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and York’s Schulich School of Business, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Queen’s University.

“I am known for reinventing business models of companies including the public service, which was my role as a senior leader within Alberta Health Services, and (Ontario deputy health minister) Helen Angus and Steve Orsini played a major role in recruiting me back from Alberta in order to help out here.”

Angus declined to answer questions Thursday about the recruitment and hiring process. “I really can’t comment on HR (human resources) issues,” she said.

Orsini left the government for the private sector in January. He and French did not reply to requests for comment Thursday.

Ford’s office also would not comment specifically on the ties between French and Fenwick or the hiring process, and referred questions to the cabinet office.

“The premier has been clear: every public appointment must be made based on merit. That’s why he acted decisively by directing appointments be reviewed, a process that is currently underway,” Ford spokesman Richard Clark said in a statement Thursday.

“If anyone was appointed for the wrong reasons or is not performing to the highest standards, they will be removed from their position.”

Cabinet office spokesman Craig Sumi confirmed Fenwick’s role is a new position in the government but would not comment on whether there was a public job posting or executive search firm hired to recruit suitable applicants, how many other people were interviewed, or detail any involvement by French.

“We don’t comment on HR matters,” Sumi said.

In his blog widely read within the civil service, Orsini has previously mentioned searches for deputy ministers and other staff but there were no references to seeking a strategic transformation officer after Ford’s government was sworn in.

In a blog memo to civil servants last November, Orsini wrote that Fenwick would “lead the system transformation office in cabinet office to support crosscutting transformational initiatives that require an enterprise response to systemic change. His deep experience will support all-of-government initiatives to drive greater efficiencies in the delivery of public services.”

Fenwick said French was not on the interview panel, and that he was “not directly involved” with the former chief of staff on the job since early last November.

However, entries on Fenwick’s calendar, which was obtained by the New Democrats through a Freedom-of-Information request and provided to the Star, show meetings with French on Nov. 8, Nov. 14 and Jan. 16.

Fenwick also said he has not yet met Ford but his calendar shows a Nov. 9 breakfast meeting with Ford in one of his favourite haunts, Perkins Family Restaurant on Dixon Rd. in Etobicoke. Fenwick did not reply to an email and phone message from the Star inquiring if the meetings with the premier and French took place.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said provincial integrity commissioner J. David Wake should launch a formal probe into French’s involvement in appointments “to clear the air and restore public confidence,” and pressed Ford to agree to make any findings public.

“Mr. French was someone of tremendous influence in this government,” added Fraser. “He was in charge. Some might argue more in charge than his boss.”

French’s departure came after Ford rescinded the $185,000-a-year posting of Taylor Shields, a cousin of French’s wife, as Ontario agent-general in London and the posting of his son’s friend, 26-year-old Tyler Albrecht, as trade representative to New York with a salary of $164,910.

Days later, it emerged that French niece Katherine Pal, managing director of Pal Insurance, had resigned her Dec. 31 appointment to Ontario’s Public Accountants Council, an oversight body.

Fraser said the appointments appear to be “part of a pattern,” but expressed frustrations with the legal powers granted to the integrity commissioner’s office under the Public Service of Ontario Act.

Wake acknowledged in a letter to Fraser that he has the power to investigate public appointments but not to make findings public.

“I have no legal authority to release that information publicly. The decision to do so would be the premier’s,” Wake wrote in response to a request from Fraser for a probe.

New Democrat MPP Marit Stiles said the premier hasn’t paid close enough attention to appointments made by the government, and blamed Conservative MPPs on a legislative committee for blocking appearances of some appointees for questioning.

“We’ve seen repeatedly that Doug Ford doesn’t want to know who’s boarding his gravy train,” Stiles said.

“It’s now incumbent on us, I think, to dig a little deeper.”

Ford’s office dismissed NDP complaints about the appointment review process as “just another example of their political games.”