ABOVE: Tories said on Nov. 26 Chris Mazza should be in prison, not working at a hospital. Alan Carter reports.
TORONTO – Revelations that Chris Mazza collected $9.3 million before being axed as Ornge’s CEO amid a criminal probe of the air ambulance service’s finances sparked another firestorm Monday for the Ontario government.
The Liberals pleaded ignorance of the figure reported by the Toronto Star and couldn’t explain why the source documents cited by the newspaper – prepared by Ornge and provided to government auditors nearly two years ago – apparently didn’t make it to the legislative committee probing the scandal.
Health Minister Deb Matthews said Ornge’s former managers hid salaries from the government. But she also admitted she hadn’t looked at the documents about Mazza’s salary before they were sent to the Ontario Provincial Police in February 2012.
READ MORE: Ontario Tories say former Ornge CEO should be in jail, not working in hospital ER
Mazza outsmarted her, she said.
“I am disgusted,” Matthews said. “I am honestly disgusted the more I hear about what this man and his board did.”
It’s been the common refrain throughout the Ornge scandal from the Liberals, who the auditor general criticized for failing to oversee Ornge despite giving it $730 million over five years and allowing it to borrow another $300 million.
The Liberals insist Ornge, which receives about $150 million a year from the province, went rogue with a web of for-profit companies and questionable business deals, as well as exorbitant salaries and lavish expenses.
The committee has heard that the Liberals signed off on the for-profit venture – which went nowhere – but didn’t pay attention to what was going on. Those subsidiaries are now bankrupt.
Matthews’ comments incensed the opposition parties, who said they can’t believe Mazza’s true compensation is only coming out now.
“We as a parliamentary committee requested every piece of information relating to Mazza’s salary,” said Progressive Conservative Frank Klees.
“It obviously was hidden from us as well. We question why. Why does this government continue to defend this man?”
The Liberals also hid information from the committee investigating the costly cancellation of two gas plants, he said. It took drastic measures – including a contempt motion – to pry it from their grasp.
Instead of making sure that health-care dollars were going towards saving lives, the Liberals allowed millions to go right into Mazza’s pocket, said the New Democrats, who’ve been asking about his salary since 2010.
“The rules were in place against that, but the government chose not to enforce them,” NDP health critic France Gelinas said in the legislature. “See no evil, hear no evil.”
Premier Kathleen Wynne said her government isn’t hiding anything.
“I’m not defending this man (Mazza) or his actions,” she said in the legislature.
“But we have made huge changes at Ornge … that address the issues that were raised by this set of circumstances. But to suggest that I’m defending those actions is absolutely not accurate.”
Anyone earning more than $100,000 on the public payroll is supposed to have their salary disclosed in the so-called sunshine list of Ontario’s highest paid public sector workers. But the $9.3 million Mazza reportedly collected over six years wasn’t made public.
“How many other salaries in this government are there where we’re only getting partial disclosure of how much they’re really getting paid?” said Klees.
Mazza, who is currently working at a hospital, is suing Ornge for $1 million in what he alleges are unpaid bonuses that he’s owed.
“This man has no business collecting one more nickel from the Ministry of Health, and yet he’s practising in the emergency ward in Thunder Bay,” Klees said.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Mazza has shown “complete disrespect for the public purse.”
The hospital and Matthews should watch his billings very carefully, she said.
Last August, the all-party committee heard that Mazza received at least $1.4 million in compensation, including bonuses. He also received about $1.2 million in loans in a single year, according to documents tabled with the committee.
By comparison, the province has paid its top-earning manager, Ontario Power Generation’s president and CEO, about $12 million over the past six years.
Mazza has maintained that the board signed off on his compensation package. But former Ornge directors told the committee that they were deceived by Mazza and top Ornge executives.
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