PCs call for Hydro One salaries to be disclosed

The Progressive Conservatives are calling on the Liberal government to publish Hydro One salaries when the next so-called sunshine list of publicsector workers making more than $100,000 comes out.

Salaries at Hydro One were exempted from the annual public sector salary disclosure last year once the government sold the first 15-per-cent tranche of the formerly public utility.

The former Hydro One CEO was paid $745,000 in 2014, and about 3,800 workers were paid more than $100,000 that year, but they’re no longer included in the public disclosure.

The current Hydro One CEO, earns a $850,000 base salary that could rise to a maximum of $4 million with bonuses, but the salaries of thousands more are no longer known.

“Everything about this deal has happened behind a big, black curtain,” said PC energy critic Todd Smith, noting the company is also no longer subject to oversight by legislative officers such as the ombudsman and auditor general.

The Tories have called before for Hydro One salaries to stay public, at least while the government still owns at least 50 per cent — about 30 per cent has been sold so far and the government intends to sell 60 per cent. Smith said he intends to introduce a private member’s bill to amend the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act if the government doesn’t heed his call this time.

“Clearly I think if we can continue to pressure the government to be more transparent about it, I think that’s the goal here, is to provide that transparency to the public,” he said.

A spokesman for Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault sounded unreceptive to Smith’s call and suggested his news conference was an attempt to distract from good job numbers released Friday.

“As previously disclosed, Hydro One is now a publicly traded company and must annually and publicly report on the compensation of its executives, as they have always done,” Colin Nekolaichuk said in a statement.

Publicly traded companies are obliged to disclose the salaries of their CEO, CFO and next three highest-paid executives if they earn more than $150,000.

Hydro One CEO Mayo Schmidt was appointed Aug. 31, 2015, and in the last four months of that year earned $1.3 million, according to the company’s management information circular. The CFO could earn up to $1.5 million with bonuses. Three more executives earned $2.4 million in 2015. The Canadian Press