The disclosure Wednesday by Premier Dwight Ball during question period in the House of Assembly caught even Opposition Leader Paul Davis off guard.
Coffey, a prominent St. John’s lawyer, resigned from his job as clerk on Sunday after stories emerged last week about lawsuits in which he was representing clients suing government agencies such as Nalcor Energy and Western Health.
This new case involving the Labrador health authority had Davis calling for Ball’s resignation.
Davis had been firing questions at Ball over the issue Wednesday when Ball revealed the settlement had taken place.
“Premier, can you indicate if any out-of-court settlements or agreements occurred between Mr. Coffey and any government entity during his time as clerk?” Davis had asked.
“Mr. Speaker, I think there was an indication from the discussion that I had on the weekend that there was a settlement that might have occurred within one of the health authorities somewhere, but that’s as much as I can speak to that,” Ball said.
Davis pressed the Liberals for more information on the settlement and whether they see it as a conflict of interest, or even ethical, for the clerk of the executive council to negotiate a settlement on behalf of a client suing a government agency.
In a media scrum outside the House of Assembly, Ball said Coffey had done the majority of the work on that case long before he became clerk of the executive council. He noted the information about the amount of the settlement was not public information, as it is between Coffey’s client and the Labrador health authority.
“There was a settlement that occurred with (Labrador-Grenfell Regional Health Authority) and that was a settlement of a file that would have been worked on, a statement of claim filed I think back in 2013 or something, on an issue that was going on for quite some time,” Ball said. “So most of the work that was done on that file would have been done before Mr. Coffey came on as clerk. It was part of the files that were discussed with the Department of Justice (that Coffey was in the process of winding down). It is the only settled one that I’m aware of that happened as part of him dealing with work that was outstanding with his clients.
“I will assure you that Mr. Coffey, any work he did (on the case) was not on government’s dime.”
Davis was having none of it.
He said that Wednesday was the first time anyone heard of the settlement despite days of questions on the Coffey issue in the House of Assembly and a news conference by Ball on Monday.
“This story first broke on April 21. We’ve asked dozens of questions of the premier. He held a press conference with the media on Monday and essentially laid out to everyone all the facts and details. He talked about seven cases, only two involved government agencies and now we find out about another case involving a government agency only after days of question period,” Davis said.
“People should be outraged, absolutely outraged, by the response from this premier and how he has handled this matter. Another terrible list of circumstances and actions, misjudgments by the premier. After days and days, he finally disclosed the most important piece of information involving this whole conflict of interest.
“We’ve asked him for days for the actual information, for what else is involved here, and again today I have concerns about what we don’t know and finally today he discloses that while (Coffey) was the clerk he actually negotiated a settlement with a health authority.
“The premier should resign. He’s not been honest about this whole matter and the people deserve better, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians deserve better.”
Coffey had been the clerk of the executive council since September 2016 until his resignation last weekend. The role made him the top bureaucrat in the provincial government — in many ways on par with a cabinet minister. He participated in cabinet meetings, provided advice to the premier and at the highest level managed the entire provincial government bureaucracy.
Last week the public learned Coffey had also continued to work as a private-practice lawyer on the side, still representing some of the clients he had before taking the job as clerk of the executive council.
And last month, Coffey filed a lawsuit on behalf of one client suing Nalcor Energy for wrongful dismissal.
Coffey told The Telegram last week that he’d erected “Chinese Walls” within government to prevent conflict of interest by making sure issues related to his law practice didn’t come across his desk at Confederation Building.
Ball told reporters on Monday that Coffey had been winding down his law work since he took the job as clerk, as part of transitioning from private to public life.
Ball, however, said he wanted the law work wrapped up by the end of June, but Coffey indicated it wasn’t enough time and resigned on Sunday.