BC Ferries didn’t give management $300 perks… but did they give them a 10% bonus or a raise?

Posted on by Laila

moneyFollowing the news last week of BC Ferries rewards to ferry workers, sources indicated to me that the $300 gift cards were hardly the biggest outrage to come from BC Ferries.

In fact, sources indicated that management had or would be receiving a 10% bonus/raise across the board, and that BC Ferries was deliberately holding back the Annual Statement of Executive Compensation report until the last-minute before required filing date of Aug. 18th, 2013.

To set the scene here, last year’s Executive Compensation report – ( which is produced after the last quarter of each fiscal year-end, March 31st of every year) – was filed and available to the public on June 27th, 2012.

In 2011, it was also available June 27th, and in 2010 it was filed and available June 30th.

This year, it’s not yet posted and we are into the middle of July. Based on the information from my sources, I wondered why.

I contacted Deborah Marshall, executive director of Public Affairs for BC ferries with the following query:

Sent: July 12, 2013 8:58 AM

To: Marshall, Deborah

Subject: Executive compensation for 2013

 Good morning,
I was forwarded information this morning via my site that indicates in addition to the  front line workers compensation of gift cards etc, that management gave themselves a 10% bonus across the board.
Can you confirm or deny this?
 
When is the Executive compensation report for the year ended March 31st 2013 to be released? Last year it was June 27th.
Thanks
Laila Yuile

After responding that she would check into this and get back to me, she did later that same afternoon:

Hi Laila

I checked on executive compensation and in accordance with securities regulatory requirements, our executive compensation report will be filed on SEDAR on or before August 18.  Regards,

Deborah Marshall

Executive Director, Public Affairs

I specifically asked: ” Can you confirm or deny this?”  and she completely stepped right around the question. Further inquiries were not answered.

Of course, in light of the outrage over $300 gift cards – which would prove to be a drop in the bucket in comparison- it would certainly help BC Ferries to mitigate the public reaction to such any such 10% bonus or raise for management by delaying the info further to soften memories.

Now, why would BC Ferries executives want to give themselves a raise or a bonus? Well as CBC recently reported :

In its 2013 year-end financial report B.C. Ferries reported it made a “modest profit” of $15.5 million during the last fiscal year, reversing a $9-million loss the previous year.

However, as Canadian Taxpayers Federation spokesman Jordan Bateman says in that same story:

“BC Ferries has raised rates by four per cent and took nearly $22 million from the government, and then broke their arm patting themselves on the back for making a profit. It’s a fake profit built on a subsidy and a rate increase.”

Considering the past record for the timely filing and releases of Executive compensation, I find it highly suspect that this year BC Ferries is holding off this long on the information already and I suspect the information won’t appear at all until right before the August 18th deadline, when people are taking the last bit of summer vacation…

Of course, only BC ferries can settle this one, by filing and releasing the executive compensation report immediately for the public record.

In the interim, if you have any other information about this story, please contact me via my contact page or email !!

22 thoughts on “BC Ferries didn’t give management $300 perks… but did they give them a 10% bonus or a raise?”

  1. A lovely find, Laila.

    Give the union workers a little bonus (likely far less than 1% of salary) and let them get keel-hawled by the media… then slip in a little 10% bonus to management in the dog days of summer.

    Where’s Christy Clark(e) when we need her to stop this theft? On holidays?

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    1. Who knows? She doesn’t know anything, anyways- remember? 😉

      Too bad she can’t remember the inconsistencies in her statements regarding this entire enthnogate/ bribery scandal.

      I would urge BC Ferries to release the info, in the name of transparency. My sources are very very reliable.

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      1. The farrie workers don’t get bonuses but the corprit big wig do that’s shit and they pay shit for the abuse there workers take from people like this chick

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        2. Mother of God !
          Gogikoi, where did you learn the english written language? A 1970’s Japanese Godzilla remake?
          “farrie”, “corprit” and “chick”.
          Jeez Louise man, I know African American ebonics graduates that can spell better than that……… Pay less attention to the beer label and more attention to a dictionary

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  4. I knew it Laila, they (the board/management) most surely wouldn’t have given out perks to everyone else without taking something for themselves.. it never fails.
    Great work!!
    I too have been wondering about this “false profit” claptrap being put out especially when BC Ferries was subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of 22 million as stated by Jordan Bateman.

    The cynic in me is almost never wrong when it comes to this bloated government (and quasi-private subsidized corporations) taking advantage of their positions.

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  5. And your revelations come one day after ANOTHER ferry breakdown……..
    BC Ferries seems tp pride itself on “on time” ferry statistics.
    One wonders if we were to calculate the amount of ferries “off line” during the peak earing season
    ( May to Sept), how that would affect their “on time” stats. ( reduced sailings, smaller ships forced into service, overtime for the staff of ships filling in for the “breakdown’).
    Is it me or has the Spirit of Van Island been “out of service” an inordinate amount of time this year?

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    1. If I might make a suggestion to the exceptional people of Vancouver Island, I would demand they rename the ferry… it’s certainly not indicative of the spirit of Islanders!!!

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    1. Not correct about management giving themselves a bonus/raise? Do share your information if you can refute that. BC Ferries won’t.

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      1. I think that Gogikoi may have a problem reading, assimilating information, and then passing it on to others in a coherent manner.
        Dyslexia can do that.
        Lets wait til mid August and see who’s right and who’s blowing smoke out their arse.
        My moneys on Laila not “Lila” or Geiko

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  7. As a long time member of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, ( I am a small businessman who contribes a modest amount on a yearly basis), I find that they are always right on the money, if you know what I mean. In this time of fiscal tightness, I would not be bonusing anyone. These folks are lucky to have jobs, and good paying jobs I might add. My take is that the price to ride a ferry has passed the tipping point. What we need to do is get some “made in Canada” fuel prices, especially for public transportation. Tourism and the Island’s economy could not help but benefit from lower priced ferry tickets. It’s about time we started thinking “inside the box”.

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    1. I agree Chris. It will be interesting to see that executive compensation report this year and next year. I can see Management justifying it pointing the ‘modest profit’ they made – which of course Jordan pointed it, isn’t really….;)

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  8. Laila, the strategy here is to make the rank and file appear to be milking the system. In the meantime, those at the top of the food chain reap huge spoils. For one management employee making $200,000 per year, a 10% bonus is $20,000. The $300 stipend for 67 rank and file members equates to this same bonus.

    Although many folks object to any extra compensation for ordinary government workers, those in the higher echelons quietly extract monstrous bonuses from government coffers. What really bugs me is the professional spokes-people shield the hierarchy, but the ordinary employee is publicly abused for a mediocre benefit.

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  9. I agree. The ferry workers do tend to take a lot of abuse. I certainly don’t hold the gift cards against them because they actually do the brunt of the work. Unfortunately when it is a public corporation, the optics don’t look good when the ferry rates keep increasing, and that is what led to the outrage of the public at large.

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  11. I don’t have a problem with employees getting a bonus for hard work. It’s the way a company shows their appreciation. I take the ferries often enough to see that the ferry workers work hard. The dock people who stand in the middle of traffic as vehicles load are subjected to fumes and sometimes idiot drivers who have close calls or are disrespectful.
    The people who work in the kitchen work at full speed each and every sailing to try to get food ready for hundreds of people in a short time.
    The people who are the cleaners are always busy. Aside from the regular duties of keeping the washrooms cleaned and the floors vacuumed, they also have to clean up after the public. Many people who travel think it’s ok to just leave their messes anywhere. Imagine the retaliation from the public if they arrived on to a dirty messy ferry.
    What I do agree with is that the high paid executives should not be giving themselves a raise. While the rest of the people in BC have to make do with less…due to rising costs of everything else…the highest paid people seem to always get more.
    Take a look at TransLink…perfect example. While the poor people who rely on services like HandyDART get less and les service, the high paid executives get a raise.

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