Letter of the day | N.B. must pay deputy ministers competitive salaries
To The Editor:
I am writing to respectfully clarify a couple of points included in the Times & Transcript editorial of Tuesday, Aug. 5 regarding adjustments to compensation for deputy ministers.
I would first like to point out that the province's deputy ministers are eligible to qualify for pay-at-risk compensation of 10 per cent of their salary, not up to 25 per cent as was stated in the editorial.
When our government undertook a review of deputy ministers' compensation, we learned that they were among the lowest paid in Canada. Even with the measures we are now taking, many will be paid less than their counterparts across the country, though their salaries are now comparable to Nova Scotia.
Deputy ministers serve at the pleasure of the premier. With this new pay-at-risk component, each deputy minister will sit down with him to draw up a performance contract with a set of measurable targets. If deputy ministers meet every single target set out in this agreement, they are eligible for the 10 per cent. If they do not meet their targets, they receive nothing. New Brunswick now joins eight other provinces and territories, along with the federal government, in introducing this pay-at-risk option.
I would also like to clarify the perception that deputy ministers will make $175,000 per year. That is incorrect. We have introduced adjustments to deputy ministers' salaries, to bring them in line with other provincial governments. Most deputy ministers will receive compensation between $128,414 and $148,694. A few who serve in larger departments or have larger corporate responsibilities will receive between $139,278 and $169,293.
New Brunswick faces a demographic challenge that is too significant to ignore. Approximately 35 per cent of top civil servants will retire in the next five years, and unless we fairly compensate them for the work they do, we will struggle to fill their positions when they retire. The search for highly qualified and talented senior managers is very real.
We face stiff competition from other provinces, the federal government, other public sectors within New Brunswick, and private sector employers across North America.
In some departments, deputy ministers are dealing with budgets of over $1-billion or more.
We must attract the best people in order to continue providing New Brunswickers with the high quality public services they deserve.
Wally Stiles,
Minister, Office of Human Resources,
Fredericton
More Opinion
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
Comments (4)
All comments are subject to the site Terms of Use. For a full commenting tutorial click here.
Our editorial team relies on filtering technology and our visitor community to identify inappropriate comments. In the event that a site user has submitted offensive content that has evaded our filter, please select the option to Flag As Inappropriate presented within the comment. Thank you for helping to keep this site clean.
I'll suggest that the problem we are looking at here is not what we, the taxpayers, are being told we must pay our executives but the sleazy way in which a minister of the crown hides behind a dubious interpretation of privacy legislation to justify it. Then again this minister never really demonstrated much backbone when it comes to a point of conviction. (Non-partisan assessment)
Dear Mr. Graham! Why don't you tell some of your lesser lights in cabinet that a few of the decisions they make really are defensible and that releasing all the details with the right explanation might not only be the honest thing to but it could earn you some points.
You may need them.