Green Party lays off half of staff members as financial drought, internal strife deepens
Global News
The sources say Green executive director Dana Taylor is meeting one on one with affected workers throughout the day to inform them.
Layoffs are once again hitting the Green Party as party brass look to shave costs amid persistent financial and political woes.
The Greens are temporarily laying off half of their staff, or about 10 employees, effective Tuesday, according to three senior party officials who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal matters.
The sources say Green executive director Dana Taylor is meeting one on one with affected workers throughout the day to inform them.
The culling will affect staff in the office of Leader Annamie Paul as well as in communications and mobilization, marking a partial repeat of temporary layoffs announced last June.
Paul, who announced last month she would resign and has little say in the layoffs, remains in the top spot as she negotiates with Green executives about compensation for costs incurred during legal battles with the party, sources say.
On top of financial troubles, Greens face a self-reckoning after last month’s federal election where the party maintained two seats in the House of Commons but saw its share of the popular vote tumble to about two per cent from nearly seven per cent, capping off a year marked by power struggles, bitter feuds and a defection to the Liberals by New Brunswick MP Jenica Atwin.
The fractious dynamics were on display over the weekend, when the party’s 16-member federal council as well as its five-member executive council — Paul sits on both — took part in several meetings to which the leader was not invited, sources say.
The virtual sit-downs, which included discussion of the impending layoffs, were opened to all Green members for one portion that saw accusations fly over the party’s treatment of Paul, resulting in an apology from new president Lorraine Rekmans over the lack of invitation.