CEO payouts under wraps

By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Sat, July 19, 2008

Severance payouts to Alberta's two highest-paid public health-care executives may never be made public, even though details of their multimillion-dollar executive pensions have been released.

Former Calgary Health Region CEO Jack Davis walks away with a $4 million pension, while departing Edmonton health region CEO Sheila Weatherill gets a pension worth roughly $2 million.

Both Davis, who earned $1.3 million in salary and benefits last year, and Weatherill, who earned more than $900,000, are expected to get hefty severance payouts.

But Leslie Beard, spokesman for Alberta's new health super board, said details of these severance payments will not be made public as a matter of policy.

"We just do not give out individual dollar figures on severance payments," Beard said yesterday.

"We may, down the road, release a total figure for all severance. But not for individuals."

That isn't sitting well with Alberta's opposition Liberals. Finance critic Laurie Blakeman said Albertans have a right to know. "People are going to be very angry that the government is hiding these salaries from them," said Blakeman. "I think nothing shows guilt more than trying to hide the information."

Blakeman said the government appears to have made a hasty decision to eliminate eight senior public health-care executives without considering how the public will react to multimillion-dollar pension and severance payouts.

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