High-priced help
Published Tuesday January 13th, 2009
Government Province's pay list highlights earnings gap between officials and ordinary NBers
FREDERICTON - Monday's release of annual government compensation highlights the growing gap between the average New Brunswick worker and provincial officials and appointees, says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, warning there is a fine line between fair and "obscene" government wages.
A listing of government salaries for 2007 reveals there are thousands of provincial employees who are making far more than the average New Brunswick income, which is $28,450, according to Statistics Canada.
Take the 2,500 employees at NB Power, the province's public electric utility. At the top sits president and CEO David Hay with a 2007 salary of between $325,000 and $350,000.
The government releases only pay ranges to protect the privacy of its employees and appointees.
In all, the utility had close to 500 employees making more than $100,000, including 42 making in excess of $150,000. More than 900 employees made between $75,000 and $100,000.
Most of those employees ranged from nuclear engineers to vice-presidents to lawyers and accountants.
Other notable provincial salaries include: John Sinclair, head of the New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation (which oversees public service pensions), who was paid between $475,000 and $500,000.
James Scott, also with the Investment Management Corporation, pulled in between $300,000 and $325,000.
Donne Smith, head of the New Brunswick Securities Commission, made between $175,000 and $200,000.
As well, Elizabeth Weir, president of the province's energy efficiency unit (and former leader of the provincial NDP) made between $125,000 and $150,000.
Bernard Richard, the province's ombudsman and child and youth advocate earned in the range of $200,000 to $225,000.
The head of the province's liquor corporation, longtime Liberal strategist Dana Clendenning, made somewhere between $125,000 and $150,000.
Maurice Robichaud, the deputy minister in charge of government communications, pulled in between $100,000 and $125,000.
And Premier Shawn Graham landed a total compensation of $125,740.
Kevin Gaudet, of the Taxpayers Federation, applauds the government for releasing such figures, but says they illustrate a troubling trend.
"These lists always reveal that working for government appears to be a ticket to the good life, but it shouldn't be," he said.
"There's a substantial, and growing, gap between private and public compensation. The average taxpayer gets agitated by the recognition of just how lucrative it is to work for government.
"No one suggests they shouldn't be paid fairly, but at what point does fairness start to get obscene?"
Charles Cirtwill, of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a think tank, says most of the salary ranges are unsurprising. Nuclear engineers, he noted as an example, have to be compensated properly.
But, he says, the salary levels show the province is caught in a tough spot: how to cut costs while remaining competitive with wages?
According to Cirtwill, the government must be willing to share the pain between both those on the high and low end of the government pay scale.
"They can no longer afford to run government as they used to," he said.
"This is the harsh reality that governments are going to be facing. They need to take a serious look at government spending. They're going to have to start making hard choices about things they want to stop doing."
Other notable salaries include a host of government officers who made between $125,000 and $150,000.
Those include Michel Carrier, the commissioner of official languages; Loredana Catalli-Sonier, clerk of the legislative assembly; Michael Ferguson, the auditor general; Ronald Godin, the consumer advocate for insurance; and Annise Hollies, the chief electoral officer.
Most provincial judges made between $200,000 and $225,000 in 2007. Deputy ministers made in the range of $100,000 to $150,000.
The total salary and allowances for cabinet ministers was around $105,000, while MLAs earned about $65,000 in pay and allowances.
Bernard Theriault, the premier's chief of staff and a former Liberal MLA, made in the range of $125,000-$150,000.
Nicole Picot, the premier's director of communications, and Joan Kingston, his principal secretary, made between $100,000 and $125,000.
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I mean get real for a minute here. "In all, the utility had close to 500 employees making more than $100,000 . . . Most of those employees ranged from nuclear engineers to vice-presidents to lawyers and accountants."
I'm fairly certain Nuclear Engineers are making more than the fish plant workers at Blacks Harbour, who cares? Why can't you compare the average corporate lawyer to the public corporation lawyer, the average private VP to the average public VP, and so on down the line. Oh right, that's because the data probably wouldn't pull heart strings so you need to compare opposite ends of the spectrum instead.
365 days in a year, minus 104 days for weekends leaves 261 days. Now I am just guessing that he gets 4 weeks vacation, so 20 less days, plus the 10 holidays a year leaving 231 actual working days (if there are no sick days or personal days taken). So 350,000 divided by 231 works out to 1515.16. That does not include bonuses or other incentives, is that really good use of the tax payers money. It is not much wonder that this province is going into a big deficit. This has been an on going issue for years, I wish someone in the government had the nerve to stand up and put a stop to this foolishness.
We don't have perfection in our civil service now, so what real difference would a policy like this make, other than savings in wages & perhaps an increase in productivity?