OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has paid out nearly $7 million to political staffers who have left their jobs over the past two years.

The amount of “separation pay” that was doled out at the discretion of cabinet ministers is more than twice the amount of “severance pay” the Conservatives were obliged to pay departing political aides under government guidelines.

In a response to a written question tabled in the House of Commons, Treasury Board president Vic Toews revealed that between Oct. 19, 2007, and Oct. 19, 2009, the government handed out $2.01 million to departing aides in severance pay and $4.9 million in separation pay.

The government did not say how many people received payouts.

Under the government’s guidelines for ministers’ offices, political staffers are entitled to two weeks of severance pay for each year of service — regardless of whether they resigned, were laid off or dismissed. Those who had previously worked for a member of Parliament or for the public service could be entitled to an extra week of severance pay for each year of service in those roles.

However, cabinet ministers also have the discretion to pay departing staffers separation pay of up to four months salary on top of their severance pay.

For example, if a senior political staffer paid $100,000 a year served for two years, they would be entitled to $7,692 in severance pay but could also pocket up to $30,769 in separation pay.

NDP finance critic Thomas Mulcair, who served as a provincial cabinet minister in Quebec, described the $7 million payout to Conservative staffers as “an outrage” and an “orgy with public money.”

“When they are letting go staff, they are treating the public purse like it was a Conservative candy store,” he said.

Liberal finance critic John McCallum, a former cabinet minister who posed the original written question to the government, also found the total high.

Kevin Gaudet of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation called for the government to scrap the system of discretionary separation pay.

“It’s a sugaring-off account because the staff know where the bodies are buried.”

elizabeth.thompson@sunmedia.ca