THE B.C. United revealed on Tuesday that government documents have revealed that taxpayer funds were used to pay disgraced former Interior Health Chief Medical Health Officer Albert de Villiers a total of $346,536 in the 2022-23 fiscal year — a full year after he had been arrested for sexual assault against a child.

“It defies logic that hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds were spent to pay the salary of someone on trial for such horrible crimes,” said Shirley Bond, BC United Critic for Health. “This NDP government has still not explained why they continued to pay a child sex offender and why they refused to put him on unpaid leave until the trial was concluded. British Columbians will be appalled to find out that de Villiers continued to collect a massive salary — paid for by taxpayers — while on trial. People deserve an explanation of how this was allowed to happen in the first place and what this government is doing to ensure it never happens again.”

The BC United said that since April of 2021, de Villiers has been paid more than $700,000 in public funds, despite being arrested and charged with sexual assault and sexual interference against a child in June of that year. On February 7, 2023, de Villiers was convicted on both charges. He has since been sentenced to five and a half years in prison.