Saskatchewan Crown Corporation executives take potential 6-25% pay cut

The Saskatchewan government announced Thursday it will be reducing pay to its Crown Corporation executives starting in fiscal year 2021-22.

Crown chief executive officers and vice presidents will have their salary holdback eligibility reduced by 66.7 per cent.

Holdbacks will be eliminated entirely for Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan executives.

The province said salary holdbacks are the incentive-based option of each salary of an executive, and are a significant element of compensation — about 10 and 25 per cent of their salary.

“Our Crown sector executives are dedicated and committed public servants who do their very best for the people of Saskatchewan each and every day,” Crown Investments Minister Don Morgan said.

“However, we believe that Crown sector executive compensation was simply too high relative to public expectations, particularly in relation to the difficult economic times associated with our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Crown executives will see somewhere from 6.7 and 25 per cent less in their overall salaries, due to the change.

“Individual salary impacts will range from a reduction of approximately $9,400 per year to just over $111,000 per year for executives at the top of their salary bands, depending on their managerial level and which organization they work for,” the province said in a press release Thursday.

“Total compensation savings are estimated to be $1.82 million per year.”

The province says the changes apply to 54 executives at eight Crown corporations including Crown Investments Corporation, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SGI, SaskWater, SOCO and SaskGaming.