CALGARY – The top seven executives of Calgary’s city-owned utility company were paid a combined $5.9 million last year in salaries and other compensation.
This is according to new disclosures from Enmax Corp. that are due to be made public today, and which also show directors on the board took home more than $1.2 in compensation in 2009.
See the report here.
The new report comes at a difficult time for Enmax, which has been heavily criticized for rock star parties on the company dime and a five page missive from CEO Gary Holden last month to employees defending his compensation and actions.
The report notes Holden took home roughly $2.4 million last year. The next highest paid in the company was David Rehn, the executive vice-president of generation and wholesale energy, who made almost $1 million.
Last year, eight of 10 paid directors on the Enmax board made more than $100,000. The highest paid was then chair Thompson MacDonald at $263,000; he ceased to be a director earlier this year.
The full report is meant to fulfil the disclosure requested by Mayor Naheed Nenshi and council.
Nenshi has sought a higher level of transparency from the company.
Ald. Gord Lowe, who sits on the Enmax board but is not paid, said Thursday evening the compensation for executives and directors is completely fair.
Enmax, he said, has was given the mandate to forge ahead and be entrepreneurial in an unregulated Alberta market.
It has grown in value and given the city a solid return, he said.
“You take a look at the company since Gary’s come. It’s grown from a little wire company to a vertically integrated very successful company,” Lowe said in an interview.
He said he hopes this new disclosure puts to bed some of heightened criticism the company has faced in recent months.
That’s included controversy surrounding details of Holden’s salary made public for the first time, and rock stars being hired to perform at parties to promote and market Enmax green products.
The company has to become more transparent as its reputation has taken a nose dive, according to University of Calgary professor Loren Falkenberg, who is with the Haskayne School of Business.
“I think that it has really dropped,” she said in an interview. “The average citizen is standing back going “˜How good do I feel about Enmax and its effectiveness, its efficiency.’
“The public could be totally wrong in their perception and Enmax may be an extremely effective company. But that’s not the public perception and you’ve got to deal with public perception, not reality.”
She also points to the Canadian Securities Administrators, who have voiced concerns that compensation policies in Canada have become disconnected from long term performance.
That’s germane to Enmax in the sense the corporation has said compensation is benchmarked to public companies that are in the same peer group.
“The difference is in public companies, they’ve been reporting their salaries and the shareholder has the option to walk away,” Falkenberg said.
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