ZR
01-31-2017, 08:19 AM
Bringing this up with my own boss this am, I want a \47% raise, won't take a dime less.
Ontario public college presidents just had their pay increases unfrozen. Now they’re looking at giving themselves massive salary increases — in some cases by well over $100,000, or 50% of their salary. They’ve posted their proposals online and kindly seek the views of us plebes.
Let’s make it succinct and clear: The greed is unspeakable. The audacity is mind-blowing. The proposed raises are grotesque and obscene.
Not surprisingly, in commenting on George Brown College proposing to boost presidential pay from $359,000 to $494,000, Deputy Premier Deb Matthews wants — wait for it — a “conversation.” Matthews said that salaries have been “frozen for some time, and we want to have a rational, reasonable conversation about what compensation should be. We want to obviously attract the best and brightest, but we don’t want to pay any more than we have to pay.”
Instead of yet more vague, wishy-washy “conversations,” the government should send a clear message that it won’t tolerate the obviously gluttonous move of these presidents to make a run at the public trough.
The Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union has reason to be angry.
“For us, the most disturbing (comparison) is Toronto Pearson,” said RM Kennedy, who heads the College Academic Division representing 12,000 faculty. “Toronto Pearson has 40,000 employees — that’s well over twice the largest college.”
Northern College in Timmins, with 1,900 students, used as comparators large institutions like Humber, Seneca and Sheridan, as well as York University and Toronto’s University Health Network. It wants to increase its president’s salary from $259,000 to $325,000. Others compared themselves to Pearson airport, with 40,000 employees, or the LCBO. Universities of all sizes were also thrown into the mix. Talk about grasping at straws.
How could this happen? “Part of the reason the government created this framework was to correct unreasonably high salaries in colleges and universities. The government saw abuse in the system and took action to correct it,” said Allison Buchan-Terrell, a spokesman for the Ministry of Advanced Education.
In other words, the situation got worse because the government tried to fix it. Matthews should get back to the drawing board, and fast, before we get taken to the cleaners.
If this process isn’t halted, some college administrators will end up making more than university presidents. Then guess what will happen? University presidents will, in turn, ask for giant increases because, quite frankly, it’s hard to justify, for example, having the University of Ottawa president’s pay fall below what the Algonquin College president gets paid.
The Algonquin president could be looking at a 40% raise, of up to $124,000, to $445,000 at a time when colleges are protesting the lack of provincial government resources. It originally had proposed $494,000, but lowered the amount after getting some feedback.
Algonquin originally compared itself to four universities: Guelph, York, Waterloo and SAIT — the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary; four health-care facilities: William Osler Health System in Brampton, The Ottawa Hospital, Hamilton Health Science Centre, and Baycrest Health Sciences in Toronto; and four other “broader public sector” organizations: the LCBO, MaRS innovation centre in Toronto, Pearson airport, and BEHP — a proposed merged utility company in Brampton and Etobicoke.
Algonquin decided to drop the last four comparators after receiving criticism and replaced them with four colleges: Conestoga, Seneca, Humber and Sheridan. It’s unbelievable that Algonquin had the gall to even go there in the first place. Algonquin college (http://www.algonquincollege.com/bog/files/2017/01/AC_Executive-Compensation-Program-for-Public-Consultation_revised-jan-2017-v.-2.pdf) teaches trades and the like. Think Advanced Word Processing, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Inspection, Cake Decorating Flowers and Cake Design, not lawyering and brain surgery.
We have until Feb. 1 to provide our input to the colleges on how much or little we’ll allow college presidents to gorge themselves courtesy of taxpayers. I’ve done my part, now you have a couple of days to do yours. Spare them a conversation. Let them know how you really feel.
Ontario public college presidents just had their pay increases unfrozen. Now they’re looking at giving themselves massive salary increases — in some cases by well over $100,000, or 50% of their salary. They’ve posted their proposals online and kindly seek the views of us plebes.
Let’s make it succinct and clear: The greed is unspeakable. The audacity is mind-blowing. The proposed raises are grotesque and obscene.
Not surprisingly, in commenting on George Brown College proposing to boost presidential pay from $359,000 to $494,000, Deputy Premier Deb Matthews wants — wait for it — a “conversation.” Matthews said that salaries have been “frozen for some time, and we want to have a rational, reasonable conversation about what compensation should be. We want to obviously attract the best and brightest, but we don’t want to pay any more than we have to pay.”
Instead of yet more vague, wishy-washy “conversations,” the government should send a clear message that it won’t tolerate the obviously gluttonous move of these presidents to make a run at the public trough.
The Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union has reason to be angry.
“For us, the most disturbing (comparison) is Toronto Pearson,” said RM Kennedy, who heads the College Academic Division representing 12,000 faculty. “Toronto Pearson has 40,000 employees — that’s well over twice the largest college.”
Northern College in Timmins, with 1,900 students, used as comparators large institutions like Humber, Seneca and Sheridan, as well as York University and Toronto’s University Health Network. It wants to increase its president’s salary from $259,000 to $325,000. Others compared themselves to Pearson airport, with 40,000 employees, or the LCBO. Universities of all sizes were also thrown into the mix. Talk about grasping at straws.
How could this happen? “Part of the reason the government created this framework was to correct unreasonably high salaries in colleges and universities. The government saw abuse in the system and took action to correct it,” said Allison Buchan-Terrell, a spokesman for the Ministry of Advanced Education.
In other words, the situation got worse because the government tried to fix it. Matthews should get back to the drawing board, and fast, before we get taken to the cleaners.
If this process isn’t halted, some college administrators will end up making more than university presidents. Then guess what will happen? University presidents will, in turn, ask for giant increases because, quite frankly, it’s hard to justify, for example, having the University of Ottawa president’s pay fall below what the Algonquin College president gets paid.
The Algonquin president could be looking at a 40% raise, of up to $124,000, to $445,000 at a time when colleges are protesting the lack of provincial government resources. It originally had proposed $494,000, but lowered the amount after getting some feedback.
Algonquin originally compared itself to four universities: Guelph, York, Waterloo and SAIT — the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary; four health-care facilities: William Osler Health System in Brampton, The Ottawa Hospital, Hamilton Health Science Centre, and Baycrest Health Sciences in Toronto; and four other “broader public sector” organizations: the LCBO, MaRS innovation centre in Toronto, Pearson airport, and BEHP — a proposed merged utility company in Brampton and Etobicoke.
Algonquin decided to drop the last four comparators after receiving criticism and replaced them with four colleges: Conestoga, Seneca, Humber and Sheridan. It’s unbelievable that Algonquin had the gall to even go there in the first place. Algonquin college (http://www.algonquincollege.com/bog/files/2017/01/AC_Executive-Compensation-Program-for-Public-Consultation_revised-jan-2017-v.-2.pdf) teaches trades and the like. Think Advanced Word Processing, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Inspection, Cake Decorating Flowers and Cake Design, not lawyering and brain surgery.
We have until Feb. 1 to provide our input to the colleges on how much or little we’ll allow college presidents to gorge themselves courtesy of taxpayers. I’ve done my part, now you have a couple of days to do yours. Spare them a conversation. Let them know how you really feel.