Two well-paid CEOs and an off-again on-again ADM

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

by SUSAN MANN

The incoming and outgoing top executives of Agricorp each received about $190,000 in salary plus taxable benefits in 2015, according to the Ontario government’s annual public sector salary disclosure list.

Doug LaRose, who took over Sept. 14, 2015 as CEO of the Crown Corporation that looks after agricultural business risk programs and before that was its chief information officer, received $192,293.91 in salary plus $687.96 in taxable benefits, according to the list commonly called the Sunshine List.

Outgoing CEO, Randy Jackiw, was paid a salary of $190,600.94 plus taxable benefits of $10,396.68. After leaving Agricorp, he became the assistant deputy minister with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ economic development division.

No one appeared to be listed as the ministry’s assistant deputy minister of economic development in 2015; last year’s sunshine list identified Bonnie Winchester as the ministry’s assistant deputy minister of economic development in 2014. That year, she made more than $170,000.

A provincial agricultural ministry representative, first contacted on Tuesday Wednesday, was unable to provide an explanation of the two CEOs’ pay packages in time for this posting. She did note that George Borovilos succeeded Winchester as acting assistant deputy minister, economic development division until Jackiw took on the permanent position.

Gaffes on the list are not unheard of. The sunshine list for 2012 initially excluded salary details for six agricultural agencies, all of which had staff included in 2011. At that time a ministry spokesperson acknowledged there had been an oversight.

Released March 24, the 2016 sunshine list contains the names, positions, salaries and taxable benefits of all public sector employees who made $100,000 or more last year. The taxable benefits listed are in addition to the salary amounts.

Crown agencies, municipalities, public health and school boards, universities, colleges and Ontario Power Generation must also report their salaries of $100,000 or more. Non-profit organizations getting $1 million or more in funding from the Ontario government must also report the salaries of people earning $100,000 or more.

The top paid OMAFRA staffer last year was deputy minister Deb Stark with $209,682.07 in salary plus $8,887.40 in taxable benefits. She made about $40,000 more than her boss, Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal, whose salary was $165,851.04 and taxable benefits were $326.07.

Leal’s parliamentary secretary, Arthur Potts, made $133,217.04 plus $269.58 in taxable benefits.

The agriculture critics were also on the list. Conservative Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett made $145,592.92 in salary and $268.11 in taxable benefits. The New Democratic Party’s John Vanthof, MPP for Timiskaming-Cochrane, made $131,235 and $266.16 in taxable benefits.

Reaction to the list was mixed. Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Don McCabe says the sunshine list “only tells you a wage.” It doesn’t outline what people accomplished “and that’s where I think the sunshine list is defeatist.”

People can look at the list and see what certain public servants are earning and either agree or disagree with the pay package depending of if they “know them or they think they do,” he says, noting the list itself isn’t an accurate tool to judge individuals just based on what they’re paid.

Vanthof says there shouldn’t be any public sector workers making more than twice the premier’s salary. In 2015, Kathleen Wynne made $208,974. He’s also concerned that Hydro One employees are no longer included on the list now that part of company has been privatized.

Vanthof says he’s not opposed to the sunshine list “because there are people who do very important jobs and who are well paid for it. I don’t begrudge that.”

As for if the list’s wage threshold should be raised, Vanthof says a salary of $100,000 is pretty good and “it’s a number people understand. I would leave it.”

Deb Matthews, Treasury Board president, says in a March 24 release the $100,000 threshold hasn’t been adjusted to keep up with inflation since the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act became law in 1996. If the threshold was adjusted for inflation, the salary required to be on the list would be $146,774, and that benchmark would reduce the number of employees on it by 83 per cent.

Barrett is also concerned Hydro One employees are now excluded even though Ontario still owns 85 per cent of the company. He also questions the salaries of the Agricorp CEOs each being paid about $190,000 “at a time when the OMAFRA budget has been cut by about $28 million.”

However, Barrett says he doesn’t begrudge the salaries for the agriculture ministry employees compared to what “we see at Pan Am.” There are four employees at the organization that ran the games last year whose salaries were listed at $700,000 to $900,000.

“What did we get out of Pan Am? At least we get something out of Agricorp and out of OMAFRA,” he notes.

Some of the other OMAFRA staffers and their salaries on the list include:

• Christine Primeau, chief administrative officer and assistant deputy minister research and corporate services division - $167,406.54 and $4,943.57 in taxable benefits.
• Philip Malcolmson, assistant deputy minister, policy division, $156,007.10 and $258.80 in taxable benefits.
• George Borovilos, business development branch director, $153,827.65 and $4,110.99 in taxable benefits.
• Diane Gumbs, communications director, $144,167.27 and $330.40 in taxable benefits.
• Leslie Woodcock, Ontario chief veterinarian and director of the animal health and welfare branch, $114,646.16 and $185.53 in taxable benefits.
• Debra Sikora, assistant deputy minister, food safety and environment division, $201,445.12 plus $297.50 in taxable benefits.
• Dawn Pate, field crops manager, $114.646.16 and $185.53 in taxable benefits.

Some other farm and agricultural related groups reporting salaries included:

• The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, executive director Andrew Graham, $129,804.08 plus $821.31 in taxable benefits.
• Ontario Agri-Food Education, executive director Colleen Smith, $105,285.10 and $11,296.78 in taxable benefits.
• Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, CEO James Brandle, $301,612.18 plus $56,352.16 in taxable benefits.
• Rural Ontario Institute, CEO Robert Black, $114,000 plus $8,967.60 in taxable benefits.
• Ontario Agri Food Technologies, president Tyler Whale, $165,634 and zero in taxable benefits.
• Food and Beverage Ontario, CEO Norm Beal, $122,702.50 and zero in taxable benefits.
• Agricultural Adaptation Council, executive director Terry Thompson, $139,246.24 and $10,833.05 in taxable benefits.

In other salaries, the president of the University of Guelph, Franco Vaccarino made $423,648.06 plus $58,173.16 in taxable benefits. Wayne Caldwell, the interim dean of the Ontario Agricultural College at the university, had a salary of $182,249.58 and taxable benefits of $152. BF

UPDATE April 6 2016

The salaries listed for Randy Jackiw, former Agricorp CEO and now assistant deputy minister of the agriculture ministry's economic development division, and Doug LaRose, current CEO of Agricorp and the crown corporation's former chief information officer, were the salaries reported for the entire year, ministry spokesperson Bianca Jamieson said by email.

She also noted that 15.7 per cent of the ministry's 906 full time employees were included on the sunshine list. For 2015, there were 143 OMAFRA staffers on the list, up eight per cent from the 132 people on the 2014 list.

Prior to Jackiw taking over as assistant deputy minister of the economic development division, George Borovilos was the acting assistant deputy minister from March 21, 2014 until Aug, 16, 2015. BF