Who among the top federal economic policy-makers has the highest salary? If you guessed Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, you’re not very good at this game. Cabinet ministers earn just $236,900. A shrewder pick might have been the new Bank of Canada governor, Stephen Poloz, who earns between $431,800 and $507,900 (the federal government discloses only pay ranges for top public servants). But it is not he. Nor is it any of the most powerful departmental bureaucrats, such as the deputy ministers of Finance and Industry, whose base salaries are no more than $319,900, although bonuses can lift that over $450,000. Stumped? Don’t be too hard on yourself. Even among Ottawa insiders, few would be aware that two officials running a tiny agency Flaherty set up to try to create a national securities regulator beat them all. Douglas Hyndman, chairman and chief executive officer of the Canadian Securities Transition Office (CSTO), makes $534,043, and Lawrence Ritchie, the CSTO’s executive vice-president and senior policy adviser, $537,469. Their salaries are public because Hyndman is on long-term loan to the feds from the British Columbia Securities Commission, while Ritchie is similarly seconded from the Ontario Securities Commission, and both B.C. and Ontario publish “sunshine lists” of salaries over $100,000. They are still technically on the provincial payrolls—even though they’ve been working for Flaherty since 2009—with Ottawa compensating their home provinces. (The Harper government’s refusal to support Alberta MP Brent Rathgeber’s private member’s bill to publicly disclose federal salaries over $188,000 led to Rathgeber quitting the Tory caucus last spring; the government wanted to reveal only a handful of salaries over $444,661.) read the rest at: www2.macleans.ca/2013/08/09/nice-job-if-you-can-get-it/
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 16:47:05 +0000
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