Regina Leader-Post

SaskPower’s rising salaries make 3.5 per cent wage cut unlikely

- MURRAY MANDRYK Murray Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post. mmandryk@postmedia.com

Lost in the uproar over the Global Transporta­tion Hub and the Saskatchew­an Party leadership was an admission from Premier Brad Wall that his government is not making any headway on its critical plan to reduce wages.

In the wide-ranging scrum last week where the sitting premier admitted to having been interviewe­d by the RCMP on the GTH, Wall also acknowledg­ed that even non-union public sector employees are not yet taking the supposed mandated 3.5 per cent pay cut because unionized employees haven’t agreed to do so.

Evidently, Wall has been so busy distractin­g the public from those more unpopular issues by focusing on more popular ones (opposing the federal Liberals’ carbon tax and taxes on small business and fighting with A&W over its promotion of hormonefre­e beef ) he has, himself, become distracted from what was supposed to be the biggest initiative of his Sask. Party government in the budget.

Then again, it’s hard to fault Wall for not wanting to dwell on the issue of keeping public salaries in check — an issue in which neither he nor any other recent premier has had much success. And the recent Crown Investment Corporatio­n 2016-17 Payee Disclosure Report — specifical­ly, the section on SaskPower remunerati­on — bears that out. The annual disclosure of all Crown employee salaries (more than $50,000) hasn’t got much attention since it was released late last month, which is what both government and its employees would prefer.

The NDP Opposition did note significan­t raises for executives, including an 11.8 per cent raise for former SaskTel CEO Ron Styles (to $633,895 from $566,762) and a 7.2 per cent increase for SaskPower president Mike Marsh (to $481,169 from $448,500). About the only exception was SaskEnergy CEO Doug Kellin, who took a 13.3-per-cent reduction to $401,884.

Supposedly overpaid Crown executives is always a great narrative for NDP opposition­s. And it’s especially good fodder when the government is proposing that 3.5 per cent, across-the-board pay reduction as the key component of the 2017-18 budget.

Even the five Sask. Party leadership hopefuls — who have generally avoided any real policy debate so far — are having a hard time avoiding this issue.

But one needs to peruse the payee list much beyond the SaskPower section to recognize this is an ingrained problem at the Crown electrical utility that goes well beyond its executives suite.

According to CIC’s annual salary list, 1,833 SaskPower employees made more than $100,000 in 2015-16. That’s 1,000 more sixfigure earners at SaskPower than when Wall’s government first took office almost 10 years ago.

In fairness, that’s just 26 more than the 1,797 of 3,777 SaskPower employees who earned six figures in 2015-16. But overall last year, SaskPower salary costs increased 7.7 per cent to $371.4 million year from $344.8 million in 2015-16.

Other Crowns did a better job of keeping salaries in check.

The 648 SaskTel employees (including subsidiari­es SaskTel Internatio­nal, DirectWest and SecurTek) earning $100,000 in 2016-17 was down from its 697 six-figure earners in 2105-16.

Similarly, Saskatchew­an Government Insurance (including the Auto Fund and Coachman Insurance) had 231 six-figure earners — down from its 264 $100,000-plus earners in 2015-16.

And SaskEnergy and TransGas’s 440 $100,000 wage earners in 2016-17 was only a slight increase from its 412 six-figure earners in 2015-16.

But SaskPower’s ever-rising salaries and benefits and overtime (caused by antiquated power lines and seemingly never-ending problems at its coal-fired power plants including Boundary Dam 3) continued to drive up remunerati­on as fast as it drove up our power bills.

“Salaries, wages and employee benefits increased by $34.1 million to $953.4 million for 2016-17 (compared with $919.3 million in 2015-16),” the Crown Investment­s Corporatio­n wrote in its 2016-17 annual report.

This takes us back to why Wall’s budget objective is unlikely to be met. After all, if CIC and SaskPower can’t keep salaries from increasing 7.7 per cent, is there really any likelihood other public employees — union or non-union — will voluntaril­y take that 3.5 per cent reduction?

Not a chance.

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