Premier Darrell Pasloski is looking for a new chief of staff.
A cabinet spokesperson has confirmed Ric Stryde no longer works for the office, but is saying very little else.
Spokesperson Dan Macdonald said Stryde’s last day was “late last week” but refused to say whether he resigned or was fired. Macdonald called it a “personnel matter.”
It’s an abrupt departure for Stryde, who was brought into the job at the end of June last year.
He was raised in the Northwest Territories. Before coming to the Yukon he worked in federal politics, including serving as senior northern advisor to Indian and Northern Affairs ministers Chuck Strahl and John Duncan.
There’s no word on when the position will be filled.
For now, the premier’s principal secretary Gord Steele is able to serve the same function, Macdonald said.
Liberal leader Sandy Silver said Stryde’s departure “came out of left field.”
He called on the government to publicly say why Stryde left and whether he got a severance package.
“This is the number one position in the office, this is the chief of staff,” he said.
NDP leader Liz Hanson suggested this points to a problem with leadership.
“The fact of the matter is this is their second chief of staff, they’re on their third deputy minister of finance, they’ve shuffled the deck chairs in the cabinet, and at the core it seems to me they’ve got a government that still can’t find their direction after all these years.”
Stryde replaced Rick Nielsen, who held the job for two and a half years. Nielsen previously served as one of Premier Dennis Fentie’s chiefs of staff for five years, from 2002 until 2007.
Contact Ashley Joannou at ashleyj@yukon-news.com