Higher pay ranges approved for TransLink executives
Credit to Author: Jennifer Saltman| Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2019 22:26:36 +0000
The pay ranges for executives at Metro Vancouver’s transit authority have increased, with the biggest bump going to the chief executive officer.
On Wednesday, TransLink released the results of a months-long review of it executive compensation plan. It’s the first update to the plan since it was established in 2015.
“The board believes the updated compensation plan is fair, aligned with other public organizations and is necessary for recruiting and retaining the leaders we need to keep the momentum going and continue to provide safe and reliable transportation for people in the Metro Vancouver region,” TransLink board of directors chair Tony Gugliotta said in a statement.
TransLink’s board of directors and Mayors’ Council developed the new plan, with advice from Western Compensation & Benefits Consultants. The plan was approved in closed meetings by the board on July 17 and the Mayors’ Council on July 25, and is effective as of Jan. 1, 2019.
Gugliotta said the review was commissioned because it’s important to be able to recruit and retain experienced people to lead the transit authority, which has grown and made “significant strides” in recent years.
The transit authority has six senior executives, and their combined salaries totalled almost $1.7 million in 2018.
Translink CEO Kevin Desmond.
The new salary range for the CEO has been set at $406,634 to $517,443, approximately 25 per cent higher than the previous range of $325,092 to $406,364. In 2018, CEO Kevin Desmond’s salary was $405,242, plus benefits and expenses.
Three other high-level positions — the chief financial officer and heads of Coast Mountain Bus Company and B.C. Rapid Transit Company — will see their ranges increase by two to 11 per cent on the low end and eight to 18 per cent on the high end. The range for all three positions is $279,818 to $372,513. These positions are held by Christine Dacre, Michael McDaniel and Haydn Acheson.
The range for the executive vice-president of financial services, a role that was previously part of the chief financial officer’s position, is $258,482 to $323,103. Gigi Chen-Kuo holds the position.
The range for the Transit Police chief is $174,959 to $218,699. Dave Jones became chief on April 1.
Twelve other positions — 11 vice presidents and the chief information officer — are also included in the plan and had their ranges adjusted upward.
To come up with the ranges, executive pay at TransLink was compared to nine Canadian transportation organizations, including transit agencies in Montreal and Toronto, B.C. Transit, B.C. Ferries, and Vancouver International Airport Authority.
“The scope was narrowed to this group of organizations because we felt it was important to compare apples to apples — that compensation for the senior leaders in the organization reflect that of other similar organizations,” said Gugliotta.
According to the report, after years of pay freezes and elimination of incentives and allowances, TransLink executives’ pay was found to lag that of their counterparts by an average of 16 per cent.
For example, Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster made $506,280 in 2018, the top of Vancouver airport CEO Craig Richmond’s pay range is $582,000, and B.C. Ferries CEO Mark Collins’s salary is $425,000.
Richard Leary, who took over as CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission in June 2018, was paid a salary of $337,086.
Internally, there were inequities as executives reached the top of their pay range while other employees’ salaries continued to rise. Between 2013 and 2018, executive salaries went up by 4.1 per cent, while unionized staff pay rose by 18 per cent.
Pitt Meadows Mayor Bill Dingwall, who co-chaired the subcommittee that worked on the plan update, said particular attention was paid to balancing the need to make sure executives were being paid fairly with the fact that TransLink is a public organization. He said the initial recommendation was for even higher pay ranges, but the board and mayors went with lower ranges.
“At the end of the day I think the Mayors’ Council was happy with where we got to in terms of a fair process, and I think really where we needed to settle for fairness to the executives as well compared to the other market comparators,” Dingwall said.
When, and by how much, executive salaries could be increased is a separate matter.
The board determines the CEO’s salary, and the CEO or subsidiary boards come up with the salaries of other executives. All salaries are set as part of yearly performance reviews, and those have not yet taken place for 2019.
Although it’s not up to the mayors, Dingwall said, “I’m not anticipating that everyone will jump right to the highest rate.”
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