One of the things that makes the CEO of BC Ferries, David Hahn, stand out from the rest of the Crown Corporation CEOs is that he makes more than any other. In fact, he is the highest paid bureaucrat in the public sector.
Mr. Hahn is the million dollar man - he made 1.0 million in salary and perks in (fiscal year) 2011, $500,000 in salary, $161,563 in an annual bonus, $237,172 long term incentive, and about $98,464 in pension contribution.
Taxpayers and ferry users are forced to fund a monopoly ferry service and as a result, are forced to fund this salary and pension.
But there are plenty of half and quarter million dollar men (and a couple of women) in the bureaucracy we are forced to fund as well.
For example, in (fiscal year) 2010, BC Hydro's CEO Bob Elton made $749,213 in total salary and bonuses, Pavco CEO Warren Buckley made $560,307, ICBC CEO Jon Schubert made $507,306 and BCSC CEO Brenda Leong made $499,251.
These are just a few examples but there are about 30 crown corporations in B.C. They employ about 22,000 people and if we add up all the wages paid to bureaucrats we get an idea of how much of a burden these Crown Corporations create. In B.C., the wage burden went up from about $650 million to about $1 billion between 1990 and 1997, then stayed fairly steady until 2008, when it took off to $1.6 billion.
We tend to focus on a single person, but in reality, we face a massive wage bill from Crown Corporations. Crown Corporations don't face the discipline of a competitive marketplace, so wages go nowhere but up. It's time to get government out of the business of providing services better provided by the private sector. Taxes just can't go any higher to pay for a system that is unaccountable and out of control.
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