Neil
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Posts: 7,171
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Post by Neil on Nov 7, 2009 10:16:14 GMT -8
Canadian Press referred to the comptroller general’s report as “scathing”. I think that about sums it up. Shirley Bond apparently found some solace in the amazing statement, "From our perspective as we received the report, the one thing that we note is that she is certainly not suggesting that we start all over again." No, you wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, eh, Shirley? But, boy, is the bath water ever scuzzy.
To recap some of the findings, you have a BC Ferries hierarchy with an overpaid CEO and a bloated, handsomely remunerated board, and an executive branch where generous bonuses are lightly earned. You have a BC Ferry Authority, the one shareholder, acting on behalf of the citizens, who’s board seems to have as their sole activity appointing themselves directors of BC Ferries Services, where they then vote themselves generous raises. There is a Ferry Commission who’s second in command is directly related to a board member of the company being ‘regulated’. You have the Coastal Ferry Act, which, along with the Commission, has been structured to have no mandate to protect the interests of the people of BC who depend on the ferry system. There is no vehicle for dealing with customer complaints. There is insufficient transparency in accounting, and an undue reliance by the Ferry Commission on unverified figures supplied to it by BC Ferries. And despite Rob Clarke’s vigorous defence of the company’s debt servicing plan at the last AGM, you have the comptroller expressing skepticism at the Company’s ability to finance any capital projects beyond a five year time frame. There is the indictment of the Coastal Ferry Act’s ridiculous Alternate Service Provider process, which, as the comptroller points out, has cost BC Ferries considerable money, and has produced nothing, and doesn’t promise to produce results in the future. BC Ferries’ ability to charge reservation fees without them being regulated is criticized, as is it’s move to use it’s monopolistic position and exclusive terminal rights to compete with unsubsidized Seaspan for trailer traffic.
The report criticizes the very essence of the system the Liberals set up when it remarks on the lack of controls built into the Coastal Ferry Act and the Ferry Commission to “protect the public service mandate of the ferry system”. Further to that, the Comptroller states, “There is a risk that a focus on the profitability or sustainability of the ferry operator exclusively could be at the expense of the public service mandate of the ferry system. For example, short term decisions, focused on maximizing profit to the operator, could compromise the public service goals of the ferry system by not considering fully the interests of users of the ferry system, local communities and taxpayers.”
Strong words, but nothing that many of us have not noted before as being an inherent flaw in this whole setup.
The report cites the need for BC Ferries to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and for it to give a proper accounting of the apportioned costs of each route, something it has never done.
Ms. Wenezenki-Yolland concluded that BC Ferries is basically well-run, with acceptable safeguards in place to assure sound business practises, and she stated that the province's ferry infrastructure was functioning as it was meant to. But she provides more than enough examples to come to a rather different conclusion. For me, the most glaring is the statement that the basic setup of the Coastal Ferry Act and the Ferry Commission does not take into account BC Ferries' function as a public service. It's all about the need to make enough money.
Will the Liberals make any changes based on this report? Doubtful. The release of a report in the last couple of days which pointed out that the benefit of the Olympics is a small fraction of what the government was claiming had Campbell crowing about the huge benefit of the Games. This is a bunch that will hand you a glass of dandelion juice and tell you how wonderful it is that it's not slug guts.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 9, 2009 12:41:10 GMT -8
Reaction statement from the Chair of BCFS (and also the Authority): www.bcferries.com/bcferries/faces/attachments?id=147221=============== - I didn't realise that BC Ferries is financially sound. There's a lot of debt to be paid on a long term basis. - The $490 Million returned to the "People of British Columbia" is maybe a reference to payroll costs? I'm not sure if that's what she's alluding to. She didn't quantify the impact of the move towards more user-pay on the smaller routes. - Their key premise is in the 2nd-to-last paragraph. I wonder if she's forgetting about Gordon Campbell's political-interference in October 2008 when he announced a reversal of a service-cut decision and announced a fare-reduction, both without consulting BC Ferries first ? Re-read the 2nd-to-last and 3rd-to-last paragraphs with that October 2008 Cambell interference in mind. |
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Nov 10, 2009 10:11:47 GMT -8
"Over the last number of years, BC Ferries has overhauled a large portion of its fleet and invested over a billion and a half dollars in its vessels, terminals and systems. During this same period, BC Ferries has returned $490 million to the people of British Columbia." -Elizabeth Harrison.
Of course, Ms Harrison isn't going to mention that nearly half of that investment was sent to Germany, nor does she mention the yearly subsidy of $125-$150 million, from the BC taxpayers. All of which has some bearing on this mysterious booty BC Ferries has apparently given back to us.
I wonder just how much of the report the media has actually read. Yes, the salaries are excessive, and David Hahn's somewhat belligerent response was predictable. But this report also criticized the very setup of BC Ferries, and remarked how the financial bottom line trumps any question of the public service aspect of our ferry system. That, really, is a much more important issue than whether David Hahn is paid a million or half a million dollars. If all the focus is on salaries and bonuses, the Liberals, once again, will be off the hook for their overall responsibility for turning a public utility into a phony baloney 'private' company that is not in tune with the wellbeing of coastal communities.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 10, 2009 10:41:45 GMT -8
....and no one has commented on the cool photo of the Coastal-Class ferry on the report's front-page. ;D
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 10, 2009 19:32:03 GMT -8
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Post by WettCoast on Nov 10, 2009 19:55:13 GMT -8
BC Ferries dismisses criticisms
Says comptroller general's suggestions 'not efficient' and 'not effective'
BC Ferries top executives are fighting back against suggestions that the president is overpaid and that the ferry corporation is insufficiently accountable.
Ferries president David Hahn and chair Elizabeth Harrison were reacting Monday to a report Friday from provincial Comptroller General Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland.
Wenezenki-Yolland said Hahn made more than twice as much as executives in other comparable public bodies. His total pay package is about $1 million a year, including bonuses.
The comptroller general also noted that the retainers paid to BC Ferries directors were three to five times higher than comparable levels at Crown corporations.
Hahn told CBC News Monday that he has turned the B.C. ferry system around and suggested his style is not that of a bureaucrat.
"I'm not a public-sector guy. I'm a private-sector individual. I think that was well known by everybody for a long period of time," said Hahn.
"From my perspective, we've made substantial improvements and saved millions and millions of dollars in the process."
Turned down outside offers
Hahn also suggested that he'd been offered jobs elsewhere, and that was another reason his compensation package was so high.
"I was getting a lot of calls, to be perfectly honest, to go somewhere else for a lot more money. But I really do have a passion for BC Ferries and like the job, and they decided that was what was appropriate to retain me," he said.
Hahn was equally blunt about the comptroller general's criticisms of the boards of BC Ferries and the BC Ferry Authority. Wenezenki-Yolland said the way the boards were structured created an inherent conflict of interest.
"I think she's wrong," said Hahn. "The model was set up to get the ferry system out from under the influence, the interference, that was there in the past; that it operate efficiently and effectively in a commercial manner. And all the things she's talking about are not efficient, not effective, and certainly not something that would happen in the private sector."
Harrison said in a statement Monday that BC Ferries had been changed from "a dysfunctional Crown corporation" to what she called, "a sound and progressive commercial enterprise."
She also echoed Hahn's comments that the corporation's success was largely due to its leaving a public-sector mindset behind.
"Since BC Ferries was created as an independent enterprise six years ago, its entire decision-making, policies and practices have been built on a commercial business platform," Harrison said.
Harrison was paid $154,000 over a 12-month period in 2008/2009. Other directors made between $67,000 and $91,000.
Harrison did not address the comptroller general's criticisms of their level of compensation.
Harrison said the BC Ferries board was reviewing Friday's report and would meet with the minister of transportation to discuss it.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original article posted at: www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/11/09/bc-bc-ferries-hahn-harrison.htmlAre these people from Egypt? It seems that they are in 'de Nile'. |
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Post by WettCoast on Nov 10, 2009 20:20:41 GMT -8
Did anyone notice that the above article was from the 'Entertainment' section of the Vancouver Sun? Here is another piece from the opinion section of that paper's web site.... Leadership worth the price
By Peter R.B. Armstrong, Vancouver Sun
November 10, 2009
As a past BC Ferries board member, I am somewhat dismayed by all the comments about BC Ferries and compensation. First and foremost, BC Ferries is not a Crown corporation.
It was reorganized so as to be able to raise money in the private markets for revitalizing the fleet without making further demands on the government for taxpayer dollars.
We have witnessed what has to be considered a financial turnaround, resulting in a revitalized fleet and a high degree of passenger satisfaction -- all at less cost to the taxpayer. The BC Ferries team has provided that turnaround and, I say, has earned every dollar. By all measures, BC Ferries has achieved the objectives it was given.
People are rankled that David Hahn and some of his executives are receiving compensation that appears excessive when compared to the public sector. Yet I firmly believe B.C. has received great value, that the direction BC Ferries is going in is the right one and that the compensation is fair and reasonable for the jobs performed.
At one time, BC Ferries was unable to attract people who could stand up to political and special-interest-group pressures to buy the wrong equipment, pay way too much as a result of inefficient labour practices and operate based on special-interest pressures, rather than need. The service was terrible and the future for BC Ferries was extremely dim.
Let's not return to the failed past. Let's continue to move forward and have effective management leading BC Ferries.
Peter R.B. Armstrong
Vancouver
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver SunOriginal article can be found at: www.vancouversun.com/opinion/Leadership+worth+price/2205004/story.htmlYes, we have gone from a Volkswagen to a Cadillac, right? |
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Mill Bay
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Long Suffering Bosun
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Post by Mill Bay on Nov 10, 2009 22:53:20 GMT -8
You would think the very fact that they are being reviewed might have instilled a little bit of honest fear in them, and the responses of the top execs might have been a little less defiant in this review, but they seem as confident and unassailable as ever.
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Post by Scott on Nov 11, 2009 0:24:42 GMT -8
This myth seems to grow the more "old BC Ferries" passes into history. I will agree that the government-run BC Ferries was mismanaged and had many problems resulting from government interference, but from a customer point of view, how can someone say the "service was terrible"?
Quality of service starts with the "front-line people". I'm only guessing, but at least 50-60% (probably more) of BC Ferries employees today were around 6 years ago. It's not like they've undergone mid-life refits and become extra-helpful-happy workers that they weren't 6 years ago. To say the service was terrible 6 years ago is an insult to the workers.
This "terrible service" 6 years ago, from what I can recall, had more frequent sailings than today. No canceled Saturday-night/Sunday-morning sailings on Route 30. No canceled 7PM/9PM round trip on Route 2 from Monday to Thursday. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall more willingness on BC Ferries part to put on extra sailings or an unscheduled round trip when necessary. Yes, these things cost extra money and it's probably good to save dollars where it's expedient - but it doesn't result in "better service".
BC Ferries can point to a few new shiny ships and some older ones that have been "renewed". This is good, and an improvement in service. But I think it's wrong to assume that under a different plan or different management, we wouldn't have new ships by now. In any case, we still have breakdowns at bad times just like we've always had.
I'm not going to complain about the current BC Ferries service - in general it's very good and the workers are courteous and competent. A lot of the decisions in the past 6 years have been good. But I don't understand when people point to the past and say how terrible the service was compared to today (and they pull out their own customer satisfaction surveys to try and prove it). From a business/management point of view, maybe the new BC Ferries has improved a lot; from a customer point of view it's improved a little and cost a lot more.
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Post by EGfleet on Nov 17, 2009 10:56:01 GMT -8
B.C. Ferries' pay targeted by watchdogs Million-dollar salary puts groups in FOI spotlight By John Bermingham, The Province Public watchdog groups want B.C. Ferries to be held accountable after it was revealed that key executives earned millions in salaries and bonuses without telling the public. Three groups fired off a letter to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell yesterday, calling for B.C. Ferries to come under freedom-of-information rules. It was penned by the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "When public money is spent for a public purpose, it must be accompanied by a legislated requirement for accountability and transparency," they told Campbell. The million-dollar salary for ferries CEO David Hahn only came out because of recent changes to federal securities rules. B.C. Ferries was exempted from freedom-of-information laws in 2003, when it became a quasi-private company. The provincial comptroller-general has said the government should consider making B.C. Ferries and the B.C. Ferry Authority subject to FOI and privacy rules. Signatory Michael Vonn, policy director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, blamed the provincial government for blocking public access to what's going on. "The public needs transparency . . . to understand what's happening with their tax dollars," said Vonn. Darrell Evans, who heads the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, also signed the letter, saying governments are making more self-serving decisions. "We lose our grip on how public money is spent," said Evans. Evans is also concerned that VANOC, which is also exempt from FOI laws, has been spending "an overwhelming tsunami of public money" with no accountability. Shirley Bond said she will consider all the comptroller-general's recommendations. "Of course, we're going to consider every one of the recommendations, including the request for FOI to apply," Bond told The Province from Prince George. A committee is reviewing the FOI legislation and the public has until the end of March to make submissions. www.theprovince.com/news/Ferries+targeted+watchdogs/2231302/story.html
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Post by EGfleet on Nov 17, 2009 10:57:38 GMT -8
Cut exec wages to save ferries
By Walter Cordery, The Daily NewsNovember 16, 2009
If it hadn't been for changes to the disclosure provisions of the Canadian Security Administrators in Ontario, British Columbians would never have learned of the lucrative compensation given to B.C. Ferries Services Inc. CEO and president David Hahn, his top five administrators and the board of directors for the ferry corporation.
The changes by the Ontario body seemingly prompted outrage by B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond last July.
The CSA reported Hahn's salary, bonuses and benefits at a total of $1,034,680 for the fiscal year ending March 31. Executive vice-presidents Michael Corrigan, Glen Schwartz, Robert Clarke and Capt. Trafford Taylor had compensation packages for the same period that ranged from $485,509 to $561,747.
When told that Hahn earned more than $1 million, Bond said: "I think it is shocking for people to hear that the CEO of B.C. Ferries makes that salary." That revelation has prompted Bond and B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen to review what was going on at the ferry corporation and Translink in Greater Vancouver.
That review put the cat among the pigeons and resulted in B.C. Comptroller-General Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland's recent report.
When the B.C. Liberals revamped B.C. Ferries in 2003 and made it a quasi-private company, they overlooked some important safeguards that could have prevented the criticism stirred by Wenezenki-Yolland.
Under then-Parksville MLA and transportation minister Judith Reid, the Liberals created an authority to own B.C. Ferries Services Inc. on behalf of the government and provide some oversight. The thought behind this was to keep government at arm's length from decision making after the NDP's political interference in the fast ferry debacle.
Unfortunately, people serving on the authority voted themselves on to B.C. Ferries board of directors.
Not only are senior executives and directors paid too much, Wenezenki-Yolland also found the board of directors to be too large.
Bond's predecessor, Kevin Falcon, is on record as saying he was disturbed when the board raised its pay to unheard of heights ($154,000 for the chair, up to $91,000 for part-time directors).
When she looked at how the authority (board members) came up with their remuneration rates, she found another outrage.
They used "benchmark comparators." They compared themselves to the board of directors for lucrative private-sector companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Nike.
More than 90% of the "comparators" were huge private-sector companies, who must compete in the dog-eat-dog private sector.
B.C. Ferries is a virtual monopoly and receives about $125 million a year in a subsidy from B.C. taxpayers called "service fees." "In our view, appropriate comparators for B.C. Ferries would be public-sector monopolies of a similar size," concluded Wenezenki-Yolland.
Directors are getting huge wages and bonuses while ferry riders and the communities that rely on ferry service are getting the shaft.
Just last month, Ferries cut the 7 p.m. sailing from Nanaimo and the corresponding 9 p.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay.
Since the Liberals have made the changes from Crown corporation status at B.C. Ferries to a quasi-private company, ferry riders and taxpayers are paying more and getting less service.
The subsidy is given to B.C. Ferries to ensure service is maintained on its routes.
The Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay route makes money but not the evening sailing, so it was cut.
The stated reason for eliminating the sailing last month was to save money.
Wenezenki-Yolland has shown British Columbians another way to save money and that's get rid of the fat cats at B.C. Ferries.
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D'Elete BC in NJ
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Dispensing gallons of useless information daily...
Posts: 1,671
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Post by D'Elete BC in NJ on Nov 18, 2009 5:33:51 GMT -8
Not BCFS (as is pointed out in the last line), but somewhat relevant given all the controversy over executive compensation.
www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/11/17/bc-crown-corporation-ceo-salaries-report.html
Many B.C. Crown corporation CEOs paid above 'cap'B.C.'s auditor general says the government needs to keep a tighter rein on the rules surrounding salaries for Crown corporation executives, over half of whom are paid more than the salary cap set by the government of premier Gordon Campbell. In a report released Tuesday, John Doyle said 54 per cent of the 24 CEOs make more than the limit because they were in their jobs before the cap was set. The minister responsible for executive compensation, Moira Stilwell, said the salary cap is a work in progress. "There are executives in place who are doing great work for the public sector who were there prior to the caps," Stilwell said in Victoria. "As those positions roll over, those caps will become hard caps. It makes sense that it will take a few years for the policy to become practice." Top CEO makes $600,000Doyle's report also showed four crown corporation CEOs making more than $500,000 a year, including the presidents of BC Hydro, the B.C. Securities Commission and Partnerships BC. At the top of the list is the CEO of the BC Pavilion Corp., Warren Buckley, with total compensation of just under $600,000 a year. The corporation manages the Vancouver Convention Centre and BC Place. The auditor general doesn't comment on the fairness of the salary levels but said the government must do more to ensure its executive compensation policies are followed. Doyle said some B.C. Crown corporation CEOs are appointed for indefinite terms and some did not have a clear link between performance targets and executive pay. His report comes less than two weeks after a report by the province's comptroller general said the $1-million annual salary paid to BC Ferries chief David Hahn is almost double that of most Crown executives. BC Ferries is a former Crown corporation and, therefore, was not included in Doyle's report. |
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 20, 2009 8:47:21 GMT -8
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Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 4, 2009 21:16:43 GMT -8
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Neil
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Posts: 7,171
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Post by Neil on Dec 6, 2009 19:46:33 GMT -8
"We are a big player in the B.C. economy both in helping it grow and with what we spend and generate each year," said B.C. Ferries CEO David Hahn.
He is pleased with the direction he has steered since he took the helm of the ferry corporation after the B.C. government restructured it into a private company in 2003.
"If B.C. Ferries was still a crown corporation, you would not have seven new ships that were delivered in 30 months at $25 million under budget," he said. "The only one that was late was the one built in B.C. We wouldn't have the fleet cleaned up the way it is. We wouldn't have, and this might not sound important, the washrooms cleaned up. I think we've restored pride in B.C. Ferries and also for our own employees."
-David Hahn.
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Is there anything that David Hahn and the BC Ferry Services execs won't take credit for? Now they're telling us that privatization is responsible for the state of the washrooms, which apparently were filthy back in the days when cleaning staff were working for a -yuck- public employer.
We've heard Hahn credit on time reliability, terminal upgrades, employee morale, community relations, fiscal responsibility... virtually everything that he sees to be right about BC Ferries- to the new corporate structure of the system, and to the excellent work of management. Apparently, BC Ferries was an absolute mess before he came along, a financial sinkhole of mismanagement and decrepit ships, and hardly able to sail the Mill Bay from one side of Saanich Inlet to the other.
He's made much of the fact that since 2003, seven vessels have been added to a fleet which he said had been severely neglected. Those seven vessels represent less than 20% of the fleet total, and even that figure includes the Northern Expedition, which may not have been ordered if the Queen of The North hadn't sunk, and it also includes the marginally needed Kuper, not strictly a newbuild. Of the eleven major vessels on BC Ferries' four major routes, only three were replaced. The other eight are expected to be serving at least into the early 2020s. The Tenaka was scheduled to be the next retiree, but a recent extensive refit has cancelled that, and now there are no plans for any immediate fleet changes.
So, does less than 20% renewal in six years suggest a fleet that was falling apart, and rescued only by the dynamic new privateers? Hardly. All of Hahn's assertions are based on a comparison with a fictional alternative where no improvements would have been made. He assumes a truly public model would have let things slide into oblivion, and next to that scenario, everything the private company has done looks pretty good.
The setting up of BC Ferry Services Inc. was one of the most partisan political ventures the Liberal government has engaged in. It involved the repudiation of the notion that an essential public utility like BC Ferries could be publicly run. The Campbell government has invested a tremendous amount of political capital in this privatization project, to the extent that at every turn they , and the execs they installed at the ferries helm, feel obliged to construct a story where every last detail points to the wisdom of what they’ve created. The story is re-inforced at every launching and every media opportunity, often with very dubious supporting evidence.
Once in a while, an inconveniently contrary voice is raised, and then it’s time for damage control. The comptroller general criticized the very structure of the whole ferries set-up for it’s lack of accountability to users and dependent communities. She pointed out fat salaries, cozy appointment protocols, and questioned BC Ferries long term debt servicing and capital costs capabilities. To which David Hahn basically bristled, blustered, and repeated once again how wonderful things were under the current regime compared to the bad old days, and what did a civil servant know about running ferries anyway. We haven’t heard much from the government, who are probably regretting that they ever unleashed such a loose cannon as Ms. Wenezenki-Yolland on their sacred cow.
To be fair, it has to be conceded that within the boundaries of the ‘mission’ the Campbell government set out for it, Hahn and his team have done a pretty good job with BC Ferries. Thanks partly to ruthless fare increases, the company recovers about 80% of it’s expenses before subsidies. Its credit rating is high, and concerns about debt and future capital costs are not universally shared. David Hahn, at times, seems to employ a candour that’s refreshing in an age of corporate prevarication and bafflegab. At times, being the operative phrase.
Still, the hubris displayed by the current BC Ferries executive, through their desire to take credit for every completed sailing and every tidy washroom, gets almost comical at times. Next time you’re in the loo and you’re marvelling at the lack of pee sprinkles on the seat, take comfort in the fact that David Hahn was in there just before you with a mop and bucket, keeping everything shipshape.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 6, 2009 20:21:41 GMT -8
Next time you’re in the loo and you’re marveling at the lack of pee sprinkles on the seat, take comfort in the fact that David Hahn was in there just before you with a mop and bucket, keeping everything shipshape. Let me know when Mr. Hahn will be taking the Route-40 Queen of Chilliwack. I'm taking that sailing! ps: Wasn't " bafflegab" a character in a Harry Potter book? |
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Post by Low Light Mike on Feb 10, 2010 14:30:11 GMT -8
From yesterday's BC Government throne speech:
I guess we'll soon find out what this means.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Feb 11, 2010 6:41:24 GMT -8
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Post by Northern Exploration on Feb 11, 2010 13:51:23 GMT -8
Normal employment contracts would have some sort of severance arrangements. A change of salary from an employment contract would have to be voluntary or legalities get triggered. If you cut someone's salary when they are deemed to be successful by any other measure, triggers something called Constructive Dismissal and is grounds for a court challege. Now if his contract were to be up for renewal or renegotiation, it is slightly easier. However, if he has done a good job, and has had good reviews, has met requirements etc., it becomes more difficult to cut someone's salary no matter how much public brewhaha gets triggered. If Hahn is deemed to have done a good job previously, to change direction and to "buy" him out to get out of the contract, and even to not renew a contract, expect to pay a minimum of one year plus one month for every year in the job. When one sues, the court often sides with the employee more times than not, and severance can be twice what is normal in contracts. We had a big deal here over a number of bigwig severances. When the Chief of Ontario Hydro was let go from his $1.6 million dollar salary job, he was given a $3 million dollar severance package. His predecessor was fired when her expense claims were massive and she is suing to have the terms of her contract honored for serverance. The court case and award will be very expensive to Hydro if she is successful. Because of the expense, time and effort involved, usually this is all negotiated. I can cite many other examples. So if Hahn can show he is measuring up to the standards set, if there have been no problems (ie. dereliction of duty), success as determined by the terms of his employment is obvious, then to end the arrangement is gonna take a wack of cash. You may not like the man, your may disagree with some of the policies, you may feel that BC Ferries should still be government run, but no one can seriously say Hahn hasn't measured up to the task and direction that was given him. At this level, to change the arrangement that BC Ferries is under now, is going to cost bucks. To undo everything that has been done and re-establish it as a more direct government entity will be very expensive, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. So the long term savings or the benefits to the changes must be large enough to warrant it. The legal fees alone will be huge. Then the administrative costs will be significant. Hidden in the costs will be lots of government time and expense of civil servants. The costs will mount as it trickles down through the whole organization, and many of those costs will be hidden in the minutia of financial statements. Now if the political brownie points are big enough, government often doesn't care about cost. The BC Auditor General will squawk, but that often happens after the fact when it is too late. My own father was on a contract with the Federal Auditor General because they couldn't attract enough senior people to fill the ranks. So they paid the accounting firms to loan senior staff to the agency. The expense of that alone was mind boggling. Then some of the stuff he came across made his head swim. One of the departments, which I won't name but simply will say was very close to the topic of this forum, was one of his portfolios. The things the individual government entities did to "familiarize" him and "show off" to him was totally foreign to him, despite normally having brand name business clients you would all recognize. IE the waste was unbelieveable and was just taken as normal part of government process. BC taxpayers paid for the establishment of the current, and would pay again for the de-establishment and establishment of something new. If this was a business run this way shareholders would scream bloody blue murder and the company would likely bankrupt itself with the waste of money and resources. But hey, this is governmental miscreation, and true monetary value seldom comes into play.  Hopefully my somewhat synical fears don't come to pass but rather measured, reasonable, and fiscally sound improvements can be made to the situation and shock all of us. |
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Feb 11, 2010 15:23:51 GMT -8
I agree with NE on David Hahn, and I think I agree with him on BC Ferries' organizational structure.
Hahn was hired to do a particular job, and it's hard to argue that he hasn't done a very good job at it. The BC government knew exactly what sort of management structure thay were putting in place with BC Ferries, and they knew what sort of leeway there was regard to compensation of executives, so it is pure hypocrisy for them to profess to be uncomfortable with the amount of money David Hahn ended up getting.
With regard to ever re-nationalizing BC Ferries, this may be, as NE says, extremely expensive and difficult. The 'private' BC Ferries might be an omelette that can't be unscrambled. In any event, there is no reason why a private company can't be more responsive to the health of coastal communities than BC Ferries has been. Fares are determined by how much of a subsidy the government gives them, for one thing, and the Coastal Ferries Act can be altered. The make up of the Board can be changed. A new government could give BC Ferries an altered mandate, perhaps even keep David Hahn on, and see if they could avoid expensive, radical corporate surgery. Whatever works best, with regard to efficiency and service to communities, ideology aside.
When Shirley Bond suggests making BC Ferries subject to the freedom of information act, no one should hold their breath. BC has one of the poorest such programs around. The controls on preserving documents and data are weak, and in many cases it takes ages and protracted jumping through hoops to gain requested information. I think the Liberals just want to be seen to be doing something.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Apr 15, 2010 17:13:37 GMT -8
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Post by Low Light Mike on Apr 29, 2010 16:07:33 GMT -8
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Post by nolonger on Apr 30, 2010 7:35:49 GMT -8
news.sympatico.cbc.ca/Local/BC/ContentPosting?feedname=CBC_LOCALNEWS&date=true&newsitemid=vancouver-bc-bc-ferries-salaries-legislationB.C.'s Liberal government has introduced legislation that drops annual salaries for BC Ferries executives to levels typical of those paid to senior public-sector bureaucrats as opposed to top executives at Coca Cola, Nike and Ford. A controversial report by B.C.'s comptroller general last fall recommended salary and structural changes at BC Ferries after finding corporation president David Hahn was paid in excess of $1 million in 2008. The figure included salary, pension contributions and performance-based incentives. Nearly half of Hahn's total compensation, $494,923, was salary. Hahn's total income from the ferry corporation was about twice that of top executives at Crown-owned BC Hydro and the Insurance Corporation of B.C. When Hahn's stipend was first made public in July 2009, B.C. NDP ferries critic Gary Coons said executive salaries at the corporation were too high, given that the last few years of ferry service had been what he called "a dismal failure." "Fares have skyrocketed, tourism is on a downturn because of rising fares," Coons said. Hahn dismissed criticism Hahn, who was not available for comment Thursday, reacted testily in November to the comptroller general's report and the subsequent criticism. He told CBC News that he had turned B.C.'s ferry system around and suggested his style is not that of a bureaucrat. "I'm not a public-sector guy. I'm a private-sector individual. I think that was well known by everybody for a long period of time," said Hahn. "From my perspective, we've made substantial improvements and saved millions and millions of dollars in the process." The proposed government legislation also makes BC Ferries open to Freedom of Information requests.
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Post by Northern Exploration on Apr 30, 2010 13:55:56 GMT -8
That's fine to drop compensation levels to a certain amount and entirely within the scope of government for crown and semi-crown corporations. We will see however how that effects recruitment for the top jobs. To Joe Public, who has never run a corporation, executive salaries are always too much. I am not saying that in a vaccuum the salaries themselves aren't excessive. However, when you look for a certain skill set, with a certain experience level, you have to pay what the market demands. Either that or you get substandard talent. Do that and the errors that result will cost far more than "overpaying" for the talent. The auditor general senior staff are frequently "rented" from the ranks of the big accounting firms because they can't attract enough skilled people for what the salary structure pays. So that means they end up paying more in the long run. But one good side is that since the senior people are often changing, they aren't around to get brainwashed into the civil servant cult. If something is politically popular or motivated you gotta know it can't be good. So we will see what the salary cap does. Compare executive salaries to something entirely useless like sports figures. Only a ferry geek would work for a ferry corporation for $500,000 a year when they could earn $1,000,000 running another type of corporation. And then what would happen?  ? Cheques left unsigned as the ferry geek president was trying to break the record for most sailings over in one week. Or a report from the auditors gathering dust as the geek pres was trying to squeeze more cars into sailings, or in the galley trying to replicate the sunshine breakfast, or .... You can see the writing on the wall. |
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 7, 2010 6:16:07 GMT -8
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? Cheques left unsigned as the ferry geek president was trying to break the record for most sailings over in one week. Or a report from the auditors gathering dust as the geek pres was trying to squeeze more cars into sailings, or in the galley trying to replicate the sunshine breakfast, or .... You can see the writing on the wall.