Premier Stephen McNeil says there was nothing untoward about the way a new high-level position in the executive council office was filled. But when you ask people to come in to either serve at the deputy minister's level or serve, they're not serving the Liberal leader, they're serving the people of Nova Scotia," McNeil said. Stephenson, who was doing contract work related to the One Nova Scotia coalition at the time, was eventually the only applicant and won the job, which pays $106,000. The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union received information through a freedom of information request that showed Marilla Stephenson was consulted on the job description of a position before it was posted. 'Created a job and put a big ribbon around it'Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said he doesn't believe the process to hire Stephenson was fair.

Source: CBC News July 25, 2016 13:29 UTC