PAY hikes to execs double what workers getting

Senior executive pay at Saskatchewan’s three largest Crown corporations has increased at more than double the rate of other employees’ pay.

Since 2007, senior management income at Sasktel, Saskpower and Saskenergy is up 76 per cent. In the same period, employee salaries at those Crowns have risen by 35 per cent.

With a combined cost of $14.18 million, the dollars spent on senior management compensation at the three big Crown corporations hit an all-time high over the 2018-19 fiscal year.

The previous high was in 2015, when senior management incomes totalled $12,760,821.

The most staggering difference is the increase in senior management pay at Sasktel. Top brass at the telecom have seen their incomes rise by 107 per cent since 2007, while employees have received an 11-per-cent increase.

Senior executive pay at Saskpower has risen by 62 per cent since 2007, and employees’ by 64 per cent.

Senior executive pay at Saskenergy has increased 56 per cent since 2007 and employee pay is up 32 per cent.

The combined cost of employees, not including senior management, at the three Crowns also hit an all-time high in 2018-19, reaching $753.8 million. Before this year, the highest cost of employee compensation was in 2015, when it reached $751.1 million.

Senior executives at Sasktel have made the most money since 2007, with an average combined income of $4.5 million. Saskpower executives have made a combined average of $3.85 million over that period, while Saskenergy brass has made a combined average of $2.6 million.

Overall, senior executives have cost an average of $10.98 million since 2007.

Saskpower employees have made a combined average of $314.5 million since 2007. Sasktel employees took in a combined average of $290.3 million. Saskenergy employees, who are fewer in number than those at the other two Crowns, made a combined average of $71.7 million. From 2007 until now, employees at Crown corporations have taken in a combined average of $652.3 million.

Over the last fiscal year, the highest-paid executive at Saskenergy was vice-president Colleen Huber, who made $503,267. Former Saskpower vice-president Brian Ketcheson was the highest-paid executive at that Crown, taking home $646,070. Sasktel’s highestpaid executive was acting president and CEO Doug Burnett, who made $484,149.

Roughly 2,876 unionized Sasktel workers signed a three-year deal with the province in 2016, with total wage increases hitting 4.5 per cent over that time. It expires in March 2019.

Unionized workers at Saskpower have been without a contract since 2016. Saskenergy unionized employees have been without a contract since the end of 2017.