A woman leaving a top job in Quebec's bureaucracy to take a seat in Canada's Senate is saying "no thanks" to a golden handshake from the province.
Raymonde Saint-Germain served two five-year terms as Quebec's ombudswoman after a number of years as a deputy minister. She was entitled to a transition allowance of more than $200,000 when she left the bureaucracy late last fall to start her new job on Parliament Hill.
She tells the Journal de Montreal that she simply didn't feel at ease taking the cash, considering that she was leaving voluntarily and moving immediately to the Senate.
She also feels the province should tighten up the rules governing transition allowances for bureaucrats.
In her final report, Saint-Germain had chastised the Couillard government for allowing its austerity measures to fall more heavily on vulnerable Quebecers than on the bureaucracy.