SaskTel, SaskPower CEOs score big raises

SaskTel’s chief executive received an 11.8 per cent raise last year, while the head of SaskPower earned 7.2 per cent more than he did over the preceding 12 months, according to the parent company of all provincial Crown corporations. Ron Styles, who resigned as SaskTel’s CEO effective July 1, earned $633,895 in the 2016-17 fiscal year, up from the $566,762 he took home the year before.

Meanwhile, SaskPower paid Mike Marsh $481,169 last year for running the province’s power utility. By comparison, Marsh earned $448,500 in the 2015-16 fiscal year.

The only major Crown corporation head to take a pay cut last year was SaskEnergy CEO Doug Kelln, whose salary dipped 13.3 per cent to $401,884 from $463,697 in 2015-16. According to the Crown Investment Corporation of Saskatchewan’s latest disclosure report, SaskTel spent $296.4 million on employee salaries last year. Its top executives, including Styles, took home $5.1 million.

In 2015-16, by comparison, SaskTel paid its senior executives salaries totalling $5.5 million while its remaining employees took home salaries totalling $299.7 million. SaskPower paid out $4.3 million to its senior managers, while its remaining employees earned a total of $371.4 million last year, according to the report released Monday. That represents a modest increase in salaries paid to executives and employees, which reached $4.2 million and $360.4 million, respectively, in the 201516 fiscal year.

SaskEnergy executives, including Kelln, earned a total of $3.2 million last year; the provincial gas distributor’s other employees took home $75.4 million. In 201516, by comparison, SaskEnergy’s executives earned less — $2.7 million — while other employees were paid $1.8 million more.