New rules could see Mohawk boss get big raise

Mohawk College can raise the president’s annual salary by more than 50 per cent to $401,000 under new provincial rules on executive compensation.

Mandatory public consultation on the proposed new salary ranges for executives at Mohawk was done primarily over the Christmas holiday period and has already ended.

“It’s outrageous,” said NDP leader and Hamilton Centre MPP Andrea Horwath. “Nobody in Ontario would ever expect to get a 50 per cent increase in their salary. The government needs to take some responsibility for something I think is completely out of whack. Those kind of resources

should be going to make sure the learning experience of students is enriched.”

The province is lifting a freeze on the wages of public sector executives put in place in 2012.

At the same time it announced new rules in September to determine appropriate pay for executives including a salary cap of no more than the 50th percentile of appropriate comparators.

However, the cap has opened the door to significant raises of more than 50 per cent to executives at a number of colleges including Mohawk.

It’s up to the board of governors at each college to decide whether to pay the maximum salary allowed.

“We believe that the boards, who we trust to make decisions that are in the best interests of their students, faculty, and staff, will strike the right balance between attracting and retaining talented executives and the responsible management of public dollars,” said Allison Buchan-Terrell spokesperson for Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development Deb Mathews.

Mohawk’s president will get a raise if the board approves the proposed salary ranges at its meeting this month. The question is how much.

The proposal is for a salary of $267,000 to $401,000 with 20 per cent at risk based on performance for the college president. In 2015, Ron McKerlie was paid $260,208.67. It means he could get a raise as low as 2.6 per cent, as high as 54.1 per cent or anywhere in between.

Executive pay is proposed to be a minimum of $182,000 to a maximum of $273,000 with 15 per cent at risk.

In 2015, Mohawk’s executives were paid about $127,000 to just over $219,000.

It’s an increase of 43 per cent for the lowest salary and nearly 25 per cent for the highest. However, it also means any Mohawk executive already making more than $182,000 could get no raise at all or even see a decrease.

“It’s fair to say none of the executives or the president will be at the maximum of that range,” said Mohawk spokesperson Jay Robb.

However, the board has not yet started discussing individual salaries or even passed the proposed wages yet.

“In a period when we are facing cuts — cuts in staffing and growing class sizes — we just wonder from a students’ perspective if this is the best message to go out,” said Geoff Ondercin-Bourne, president of local 240 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union which represents faculty and other