Ottawa bonuses `pay for failure,' MP says
Public servants got $171M but underachieved
• The federal government paid out over $171 million in bonuses to executives and public servants for 2019-2020, despite departments achieving less than half of their performance objectives overall that same year.
The latest numbers from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) are contained in documents tabled in Parliament recently following a question from the Conservatives.
“It's pay for failure,” said Conservative MP Kelly Mccauley.
In the documents, TBS noted that bonuses were doled out to 89 per cent of the public sectors' executives, or 7,232 people, in 2020-2021.
Bonuses were also paid out to 2.7 per cent of public servants who rank below the executive class, or just over 7,800 individuals. But public servants are in most cases allowed to claim pay for working overtime, whereas executives cannot.
Though the bonuses were paid in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said they were mainly tied to performances in the previous year (20192020).
The documents do not provide a breakdown of how much of the $171 million went to executives specifically, which includes both performance bonuses as well as “at-risk pay.”
According to the government's website, executives are offered bonuses to encourage “excellence in performance by setting clear objectives, evaluating achievement of results, recognizing and rewarding performance, and providing a framework for consistency in performance management.”
But in that year, a federal government database shows that departments collectively achieved barely 48 per cent of the 2,777 targets set in the sum of their individual annual self-reported Departmental Results Reports.
That year, departments collectively did not meet their targets in another 20.4 per cent of indicators, whereas 15.5 per cent of targets had “no result available” and another 15.8 per cent of targets would be achieved “in the future” but with no set date.
“So 89 per cent of the executives got bonuses based on them failing over 50 per cent of the time to reach their targets,” Mccauley said. “And then you have the actual workers doing the work and only 5 per cent of them got a bonus.”
“I can tell you when I worked in the private sector, 48.3 per cent would mean you're being shown the door, not shown Google Maps and how to get to the bank to deposit your bonus,” he added.
According to the documents, Justice Canada spent the largest sum on bonuses, distributing nearly $16 million to 98 per cent (286) of its executives and 1,409 non-executive employees.
According to the government's dashboard, Justice Canada achieved eight of its 45 annual targets (18 per cent) in its 2019-2020 departmental performance report, with the bulk (22) to be achieved “in the future.”
The second highest sum was paid by the Canada Revenue Agency — $13.5 million to 97 per cent (471) of its executives and nearly 2,000 non-executives — and the third was by Global Affairs Canada — $10.6 million to 97.5 per cent (576) of its executives and 55 non-executives.
CRA met 55 per cent of its 40 annual performance targets that year, and GAC met 44 per cent of its 118 indicators.
“That was the year where the Liberals said, `we're not going to meet our promise for the clean drinking water on reserves.' Still, bonuses paid out. Phoenix doesn't get fixed? Bonuses paid out. Disaster in the DND over sexual harassment and assaults? Bonuses paid out. You can only shake your head at it,” said Mccauley. “I call it a very expensive participation award. Whether you fail or not, you get it,” he added.
Executives are eligible for two types of bonuses: “atrisk pay” which is a variable amount that they must earn every year, and a set performance bonus for when they “surpass expectations.”
Executives can earn up to 20 per cent of their base salary in at-risk pay and up to six per cent in performance bonuses. Those amounts jump to 30 per cent and nine per cent respectively for deputy ministers, heads of agencies and other governor in council appointees.
“Executives whose performance does not meet expectations or cannot be assessed are not eligible for performance pay,” reads the government's website.
The Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX) declined to comment, referring questions to TBS.
But Carl Trottier, CEO of APEX, wrote a letter to TBS Minister Mona Fortier in February arguing that executives' base pay needed to be reviewed since it had not been increased since 2017.