$1 million for BC Ferries CEO? There must be a recession on!

Woah, this is awesome!

tinyurl.com/lht2gx

I guess that’s why we need to raise taxes and ferry rates, if we’re paying these guys that kind of cash!

Also: tinyurl.com/lrtgbd

Holy crap, now that is a salary I would like! 
It sure was a good move of the Liberal government to hand over the ferry corporation to the private sector…NOT!  :imp:

Disgusting. David Hahn is disgusting.

Actually BC Ferries is still publically owned through some kind of shell game where, if I understand correctly, the government appoints directors to the BC Ferry Authority which is a corporation created under the Coastal Ferry Act, but without share holdings, and the Authority owns all share holdings in the Ferry Corporation, which has its own board and is supposed to operate like a conventional company, but actually has no private ownership. It can only borrow money from private sources.

Instead of being under the control of an elected cabinet minister who is accountable to the legislature, control is effectively in the hands of two layers of directors who are political appointees, but who do not seem to be accountable in any public forum. Something like that …  

Interesting!  Thanks for the clarification, my mistake:-) 
That is a weird set-up indeed.  I just read somewhere that there are concerns brewing about the way things are currently being run with the Ferries.

BC Ferries was “privatized” in the same way Citywest was “privatized.”

You make it a “private” corporation so it doesn’t have to answer any criticism, nor be accountable.

BC ferries received 170 million from the provincial government last year, but the total revenue from the 2008 fiscal year was over 640 million dollars.  I definitely think a $1 million dollar salary is excessive, but I don’t think it would be unreasonable to pay the CEO of such a large corporation at least half a million a year.  University Presidents make about half a million a year and recieve similar funding from the government.

Is there an honest government in this whole goddamn world?
My god, we see in the U.S. State Governors and City Mayors being charged with corruption (not to mention certain religious leaders).
In Canada we just have the bastards lying to us! (With the exception of the questionable conduct of Brian Mulroney, the past holder of the highest elected position in Canada who’s conduct was highly questionable and may still be held accountable).

Now after the last B.C election, when no mention was made of a ‘Harmonized Tax’ we have it sprung on us! If the Liberals were honest (which is impossible of ANY political party as far as I have seen in the 60 plus years that I have been observing the political scene) they would have put it in their election platform. (Please don’t tell me that this hasn’t been in the works for a very long time! These things are developed by bureaucrats, and cabinet politicians will time these unpopular moves to a time when they can shove them up our asses when they have a majority to take them forward.
If this was in their election platform I think there would have been a very strong possibility that the Liberals would have lost the election.
I personally am not in any way political. I think any of the parties would have done the same. Its the nature of the dishonest science! The government needs money and they are going to get it off the backs of the working people of this province! Maybe they should cut the size of government and let some of their ‘valuable people’ in the bureaucracy find employment in the private sector! (They don’t seem to be doing much in the  government side except spend and tax)
I have worked all my life and made a descent wage and put money away in RRSPs. Now with this last bit of thievery from the so called financial incompetent system I have lost almost 20 percent of my retirement savings! (Where did they burn all this money? I gave them over $25,000 cash and it evaporated!). Not even a speck of relief in the income tax for these losses of hard earned honest money! Too bad, its the capitalist way!
I see there are petitions about to sign to protest this HST. Sign it and hope it has an effect, don’t sign it and keep paying. And the next time they need more expect to…
…well just keep giving the bastards what they want!
After all, We Are Canadian! They expect it of us!

We really don’t have a proper term for these entities that take ownership of public assets, may receive operating grants from the government, the government is the shareholder, and the boards are appointed directly or indirectly by the government; but which operate as if they are private corporations although they are not private because they are ultimately public owned. 

The Brits call organizations like this “quangos”, for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations.

It is not always clear whether public owned companies are “public bodies” that in BC are subject to Freedom of Information legislation, or whether they are “third parties” like a private company or society that has no duties of disclosure, although public bodies may be obliged to disclose their dealings with them. I notice that the Commissioner for BC Ferries is subject to FOI, but the BC Ferries Authority and BC Ferries Service are not listed as public bodies for FOI purposes.

CityWest, as a municipally owned corporation, is pretty clearly a “public body” subject to FOI, essentially in the same manner as the City, although I suspect that the CW board would prefer to operate as a “third party”.