TransLink accused of breaking a promise over executive salaries
Posted September 2, 2014 12:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – TransLink has released the salary figures for many of the company’s top executives, all of whom made more money than in 2013.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says TransLink has broken a promise to its riders. It says the transit authority promised a pay freeze but hasn’t delivered on it.
Every company executive received some sort of pay hike, including CEO Ian Jarvis who got a seven per cent jump to $468,000.
This is despite a public statement that the transit authority would eliminate bonuses and freeze salaries.
The CTF’s Jordan Bateman argues they simply lied to the public. “They’re very aware that their board chair made a promise that executive pay had been frozen at 2012 levels and yet, their own stats show every single executive got a raise between 2012 and 2013.”
“I’m not sure how they’re going to justify that. Frankly, I think the chair should apologize — even if it was inadvertent on her part — [for] misleading the public with that promise,” adds Bateman.
He also questions the timing of the figures, noting they were released late on a Friday ahead of a long weekend. “I think they wanted to hide these bonuses from the public because they didn’t want that to be part of the SkyTrain discussion.”
TransLink gave six-figure salaries to more than 400 people last year. In a statement, it says the freezes weren’t intended to take effect this year.
