Victoria, B.C. - B.C. Ferries’ president David Hahn won’t be the only executive having to justify his salary in the coming months.The B.C. government served notice in its throne speech today that all Crown corporations, health authorities and boards of education will face sweeping reviews similar to those now underway at B.C. Ferries and TransLink.Facing the worst recession in 27 years, the government said the Crown reviews will look for ways to cut administration costs and could prompt government to scrap some agencies and deliver the services through front-line ministries. In a direct shot at B.C. Ferries and TransLink, the government also hinted that it may have to bring in legislation to protect the public money invested in those quasi-independent authorities. “Public funding devoted to public transit and ferry services should not be use to subsidize unreasonably high compensation levels or administrative costs,” the speech said.B.C. Ferries five top officials earn more than $3 million a year, the ferry corporation disclosed in July. Ferries CEO David Hahn collects more than $1 million, including incentives and bonuses. B.C. Ferries’s 13 board of directors are also paid handsomely, receiving $48,000 annually and $1,500 a day extra when they physically attend a meeting.
The speech prefaced its tough talk about Crown agencies with a grim description of government finances, which have been “decimated” by falling revenues. “We have been hit by seismic economic shifts that were unpredictable and brutally deceiving in their speed and force,’ the speech said. “They rocked our province, hurt our industries, and have left thousands of workers worried or unemployed.” The government then spent two pages of the speech defending its decision to bring in a harmonized sales tax. The controversial tax will cut business costs by $2 billion a year, and $1.6 billion from the federal government in transition funding will help protect health and education services, the government said.
Elsewhere in the speech, the government also promised to:
•Introduce all-day kindergarten for five-year-olds in September 2010
•Restrict cell-phone use by drivers
•Deny welfare to anyone in B.C. with an outstanding warrant from another province
•Bring in a new bill of rights for seniors living in residential care facilities.
•And strengthen the law that regulates lobbyists.
The government also reiterated its plan to freeze public sector wages.
“As long as we are mired in deficits, there is simply no money available for public sector wage increases,” the speech said.
2 comments:
Along with the reviews of BC Ferries and Trans link, Interior Health Administration and other Health Administration's would be excellent choices to be abolished.
Each hospital in BC has an administrator who could reduce the waste in bureauracy and not require the excessive oversight that exists by the Regional Health authorities.
I can't wait hear the screams of reality coming to bear on all these institutions.
A Simple solution to the econmonic crisis in BC would be to just cancel the Olympics and the excessive Security to costs ($1 billion) for the Emporers of the IOC.
Like the stock market your first loss is the least loss!
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