Source : Winnipeg Sun

Crown corporation gave bonuses to execs last year, records show

The taxpayer-funded CBC has paid out almost $1 million in performance and incentive bonuses to members of its senior executive team this year.

Documents obtained through Access to Information reveal that up to 12 members of the CBC's senior executive team split a pot of $964,860 in the 2007-08 fiscal year.

"We object to the idea that it's OK for a Crown corporation to act like a private entity when it comes to executive compensation," said Adam Taylor, acting federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "In a time when tax revenue will be scarce, this should outrage ordinary Canadians."

The CBC refused to divulge how much each of the 12 board members received as a bonus, or even if they all received a bonus, opting only to release the total figure.

At the time the bonuses were handed out, there were 12 executives who would have been eligible for compensation:


- Robert Rabinovitch, president and CEO (until Dec 31 2007)

- Hubert Lacriox, president and CEO (from Jan 1, 2008)

- Raymond Carnovale, vice-president and chief technology officer

- Johanne Charbonneau, vice-president and chief financial officer

- Sylvain Lafrance, executive vice-president of French services

- Pierre Nollet, VP, corporate secretary and chief legal officer

- Michel Saint-Cyr, president of the real estate division

- George Smith, senior vice-president of corporate priorities and implementation

- Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of English services

- Michel Tremblay, senior vice-president of corporate strategy and business partnerships

- William Chambers, vice-president of branding, communications and corporate affairs

- Jane Chalmers, vice-president of CBC Radio (until Dec. 31, 2007)

CBC spokesman Jeff Keay defended the payments, insisting they are part of a package that many large public and private organizations offer executives.

"There is a salary component and an incentive component and given the size of the organization, the budgets that are administered, the number of people that are managed, you have to have a compensation package that allows you to attract and retain not only competent but talented management," said Keay.

The CBC's 2007-08 annual report, which contains financial data, has not yet been released to the public and won't be, Keay said, until it is first tabled in Parliament.

In 2006-07, the federal government gave the CBC $974 million to run its operations. The rest of the CBC's $1.6-billion budget was raised by its commercial operations.

Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages James Moore, the minister responsible for the CBC, distanced himself from the bonuses

"We are not involved with anything to do with salaries," said Deirdra McCracken, a spokeswoman for Moore. "CBC is responsible for their own day to day business."

© Winnipeg Sun