REPLAY, first published Nov. 28, 2011
According to Finance Minister Kevin Falcon’s first quarterly report for the current year,
As well, the fiscal plan assumes the current public sector compensation negotiating mandate – i.e. two year agreements with a net-zero cost to employers over the term of such agreements. This mandate applies to all public sector compensation contracts expiring between December 31, 2009 and December 31, 2011…
Questions for two of BC’s Health Authorities are obvious.
In fiscal 2011, how did Howard Waldner score a raise of $31,000 and David Ostrow a raise of $38,005?
When reading through various reports on executive compensation in the public and quasi-public sectors, one starts to think about the writings of Lewis Carroll. For example, the Interior Health Authority stated on its 2011 report,
“The IHA does not provide perquisites, property or personal benefits to its executive staff.”
Separately though, they report paying outgoing CEO Murray Ramsden a retirement allowance of $113,130 along with $84,240 payout of sick leave. It also reports paying pension contributions, life insurance, extended health, disability, dental and medical.
No perquisites, eh?
In 2004, Ramsden earned $272,008. Five years later, he earned $575,109.
Restraint, eh?
See also: Net-Zero Mandate, Not For All
Categories: Health, Not-Net-Zero
in-sights.ca 
One would have to wonder if the management meetings that have taken place in Kelowna, where all expenses are paid for things like golf, horse back riding, food from morning 'til night…and of course the rooms…should be considered a perq. Give us a break!
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Simple to deal with, someone becomes leader and then put on about 300% tax on government pensions(other than cpp and oas) over say $30,000, this is to also recover the federal portion which is about 3 times the bc portion.
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“Buy a dictionary”. Yeah, that's a great ad hominem attack. Try again, Norm.
In the context the annual reports make, perquisites refer to that which I stated above. It's obvious that is the case. Otherwise, *EVERY EMPLOYEE* in VIHA would be in violation of that direction. All public employees receive pensions (or pay in lieu), life insurance, extended health, disability, dental and medical. Every employee gets those or receives compensation in lieu of. Therefore, anything beyond that would be considered a perquisite.
In the real world, perquisites or 'perks' as most people know them, refer to extras beyond what would be normally associated with regular employment in a role (i.e. beyond pension and benefits). Company cars are the most common of these. That is what they are saying in the definition.
If you want to attack the wage package, then fine – attack away! Don't use word definitions to slice hairs – the strength of your argument collapses as a result.
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Oh please, buy a dictionary. You can't invent your own meaning for a word and expect to use that in an argument.
Oxford English Dictionary: PERQUISITE: “a benefit which one enjoys or is entitled to on account of one’s job or position.”
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“It also reports paying pension contributions, life insurance, extended health, disability, dental and medical. No perquisites, eh?”
That's not the definition meant in the annual report and you know it. There are no country club memberships, golf club memberships, gym memberships, company cars, etc. – *those* are perquisites You're being disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
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There seems to be a pattern to the net zero policy of the BC Liberals.”Two year agreements with a net-zero cost to employers over the term of such agreements”.The BC Liberals know they are toast so they have delayed and are delaying all the much needed and deserved salary and benefit increases to all public sector unions until the NDP or some other political party occupies the Legislature. Once that party takes over the contracts will come due and the increases will have to be paid. Then all the mess created from the systematic viciousness of the BC Liberals will have to be cleaned up and it won't be cheap.
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They can't get enough nurses sufficiently trained and willing to work in high acuity areas like Emergency and intensive and critical care units. Why? For this high stress work, the employer offers an extra $50 a month. That is less than Waldner tips his server while entertaining guests for lunch on his $30,000 expense account.
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My wife was in hospital on Vancouver Island. The staff of the ER worked very hard, they had to, there was not enough staff ( they were short two nurses ) and there were people in the ER that should have gone to beds on the wards, except there were no beds on the wards available. So, I do not see how Howard Waldner deserves an extra $30 000 a year. Maybe the money would have been better spent opening a bed in the main part of the hospital so some pour soul could be moved out of a noisy ER like they should have been. Both better for that patient adn frees up a much needed ER bed. Okay no maybe about it. The system needs the money more that Waldner does, he was already making over $400 000 a year. Outragous.
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The Campbell/Clark BC Liberals are a, most corrupt and shameful Canadian political party Campbell was the worst criminal of the lot. His thieving, lies, deceit, dirty tactics of working for Harper, behind our backs and cheating to win….Can't get much lower than that. Or so we thought.
Campbell and Harper were working frantically to dismantle BC. Any fool would know, these outrageous salary's, gold plated pensions and payouts, are not sustainable. Campbell had stolen BC's assets and sold them. Harper and Campbell also forced the HST onto the BC citizens, with no representation.
Campbell even gave his useless self a $60,000 per year salary hike. The even more useless ministers were given a 27% salary raise. BC now has over 140,000 children living in poverty. I haven't heard one BC Liberal say, they would take a roll back in salary, until the recession was over.
Neither has Harper given an answer, as to why our Canadian goods are so much more expensive, than in the U.S.? Nor, why Canadians save mega dollars by gassing up their vehicles in the U.S.? This makes no sense. We can only assume, the large company's pay big donations to Harper, to favor them.
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