VICTORIA (NEWS1130) - The number two boss at
BC Ferries, Michael Corrigan, has been appointed to replace David Hahn as the company's president and CEO, but he won't be making as much money as Hahn.
Corrigan is currently the company's Chief Operating Officer and will officially begin his new five-year contracted job on New Year's Day.
The BC Ferry Services Board says Corrigan will make just over $560,000 a year compared to Hahn's salary of around $1 million, which sparked controversy when it was revealed during a time of ferry rate hikes and service cuts.
Corrigan's old job of COO will be eliminated by the end of the month, saving the company $600,000 a year.
Still, Transportation Minister
Blair Lekstrom admits not everyone will be happy.
"I do think the public, in seeing a salary of $563,000 versus the previous salary of a million, will have mixed emotions," he says. "I think they will see that as a positive, it's roughly 60 per cent, in that range, of the previous CEO's salary."
New legislation calls for public CEOs to have lower salaries than they have in the past. Corrigan's falls at the high end of that scale.
Previously, it was announced that BC Ferries would be phasing out
long-term bonus programs for senior executives, saying that will save
another $700,000 a year. But Corrigan and three other executives will
get a one-time payment in consideration of the bonus program being
cancelled.
Corrigan says BC needs a ferry system that's safe, reliable and
affordable and he's looking forward to working with the provincial
government, the ferry commission and coastal communities to make the
system work. He also says he is content making the new CEO's salary.
"I mean I would like to make a million dollars a year but that's not in the cards and I knew that coming in," he tells News1130.
That's not enough for the
Canadian Taxpayers Federation. BC Director Jordan Bateman says it's a good first step, but the adjusted salary is still a huge pile of cash.
"I'm a little sceptical that a $600,000 annual salary is any great sacrifice by anyone," he says. "The comparable job in Washington State with a ferry system that is actually larger than BC Ferries is only about $400,000 dollars a year."
Under outgoing CEO David Hahn, Bateman says BC Ferries moved away from its core function, moving people and goods, and began operating like some kind of tourist boutique. He says it's time to get back to the basics.
"And we understand that takes time. It literally is a large ship that needs to turn."