Generous salary, few luxury perks in Conestoga president’s contract
During Tibbits’ tenure the college has grown from 4,500 full-time students to 42,000 today
The employment contract of Conestoga College’s president reflects John Tibbits himself: a man who continues in the job long after normal retirement, and who seems to prefer work hours over the paid vacation and leaves he’s entitled to.
Tibbits has been in the news in recent weeks, because of his pursuit of an aggressive international student recruitment for the college, a recent outburst against the head of another college, and a pay raise that has made him the highest-paid college president in the province.
Tibbits came to the college as president in 1987. During his tenure the college has grown from 4,500 full-time students to 42,000 today, and has a healthy balance sheet, with a recent $106-million surplus, and $682 million in cash reserves.
The Waterloo Region Record asked Conestoga for a full copy of Tibbits’ most recent employment contract on March 1, citing a 2008 precedent when an earlier contract was made public.
This time, the college refused to release it. The Record then filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the document, which the college released on April 19 with a few paragraphs blacked out.
The college said it blacked out those details because releasing them would violate Tibbits’ privacy and the FOI exemptions that protect the province’s economic interests.
The contract, signed on Sept. 13, 2017, and amended in June 2022, provides a generous salary but few luxury benefits. There is no mention of a car allowance or paid membership to any clubs, as are often seen in executive contracts.
It provides base pay of $354,900 and an annual performance bonus of up to $55,000, if Tibbits meets his objectives for the previous year.
Tibbits’ salary is already public in the so-called “sunshine list” that discloses public sector salaries over $100,000.
That list shows that Tibbits was paid that salary and bonus for more than a decade, but that he received a substantial pay raise in 2023, when his salary jumped 20.7 per cent to $494,716.
Tibbits is also entitled to a “retirement allowance” up to his basic pay in his final year. The substantial salary increase last year means that retirement payout will now be considerably higher.
The contract suggests Tibbits is more inclined to work than to take time off: in it, he waives his right to a paid sabbatical leave, and is required by the board to take at least 25 of his 35 vacation days each year.
“When the President is prevented from taking vacation because of College requirements” the college will pay him for unused vacation leave after one year, it says.
If Tibbits, who was 73 when the contract was signed in 2017, can’t work because of illness or physical or mental disability, the board can end the contract with six months’ notice. He’s now 80.
Because Tibbits has continued to work beyond the normal retirement age, the contract includes provisions to pay Tibbits an amount equal to what Conestoga would have paid into his pension every month since December 2014, after Tibbits turned 70 and was no longer eligible to have contributions to his pension plan.
He’s required to undergo a medical exam every year, a fairly common requirement for top executives. He’s under no obligation to reveal the results of that exam, but must simply provide proof every year that he has had it.
The contract “acknowledges that the President is one of the most valuable and important employees of the College.”
It says his responsibilities include providing leadership, being accountable for the implementation of the college’s strategic plan, “at all times acting in the best interests of the college in securing and promoting its educational, community, administrative and financial objectives” and “assisting the Board with succession planning initiatives which may include transitioning duties to an incoming President of the College on or after Jan. 1, 2020.”
Much of the contract’s provisions are typical: an annual performance review; standard life insurance, dental and medical benefits, and up to $10,000 a year for expenses for conferences and seminars.