Pay bonuses for health executives under review: Premier Stelmach

CALGARY – Premier Ed Stelmach announced today his government is reviewing the bonus system for health superboard executives.

The government and Alberta Health Services have come under fire for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses paid last fiscal year to superboard brass, despite the agency running an $885-million deficit and failing to meet its targets for improving health care access and quality.

“It’s a time where we have to look at a different model to reimburse CEOs, especially of public authorities,” Stelmach told reporters at his annual Stampede breakfast at McDougall Centre.

“I’ve asked the minister just to review and come back to me personally to see how we can do this differently.”

The premier’s call for a review of health executive bonuses comes less than a week after AHS, the Edmonton-based board responsible for delivering care, released financial statements for the 2009-10 fiscal year that showed executives received hefty bonuses.

Alberta Health Services chief executive Stephen Duckett was paid $149,000 in bonuses and other benefits.

All told, Duckett and more than a dozen other executives were paid $5.8 million in salary, bonuses and benefits in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The CEO collected $744,000 in total compensation, during a year in which wait lists grew, the superboard ran an $885-million deficit and fumbled its H1N1 vaccination rollout.

He was paid $595,000 in base salary, as well as $139,000 in other cash benefits (including bonuses, overtime and vacation payouts), and $10,000 in non-cash benefits that included contributions to a pension plan.

Duckett was eligible for a bonus of 25 per cent of his salary – or $143,750 in direct bonus pay – and eventually received $76,619, or 53 per cent of it, based on meeting about half of his set targets.

More than a half-dozen other vice-presidents received bonuses ranging between about $26,000 and $82,000, for reaching about 64 per cent to 71 per cent of their targets.

Seven vice-presidents and senior officials received total compensation of $400,000 or more last year, including the VP of quality and service improvement snaring $812,000 in base salary, cash benefits and other non-cash benefits.

The health board achieved, however, at least $500 million in annualized cost savings, including reducing executive compensation by $12.4 million by slashing the number of vice-presidents from 144 under the former regions to 79 today.

JFEKETE@THEHERALD.CANWEST.COM