TransLink board highest paid in B.C.
The new TransLink board appointees are now the highest-paid public agency directors in B.C., a Black Press survey shows.
The pay level for the directors exceeds those of both the Vancouver International Airport Authority and Vancouver Fraser Port Authority boards.
Those boards were the model used for the TransLink pay package, transportation Minister Kevin Falcon and former NDP premier Mike Harcourt said last week.
But those authorities’ remuneration policies show port authority directors get a base salary of $15,000 annually, plus meeting fees of either $400 or $800 (depending on length), and airport authority directors get $20,000 annually base pay plus $500 or $1,000 per meeting.
TransLink’s board gets more than either authority – a $25,000 base stipend each year for directors plus a flat $1,200 per meeting.
TransLink’s chair gets the same flat annual salary as the airport authority chair ($100,000), however the port authority chair gets more – $115,000.
Directors of all three agencies get additional fees for chairing or working on committees.
Harcourt, who chaired the panel that crafted the TransLink board pay package, said the pay levels for the airport and port authority – boards he has both served on – were set years ago and he wouldn’t be surprised if they’re increased soon.
Harcourt continued to defend the size of the TransLink pay package, which exceeds the province’s limits for major Crown corporations and health authorities.
The port board takes in $100 million per year in revenue, while the airport takes in a quarter of a billion, he said.
“TransLink is around a billion and going to be expanding quite significantly as ridership goes up and other revenue goes in,” he said, adding the 6,000 employees number far more than at the other agencies.
He could not point to another B.C. public agency with richer remuneration.
But Harcourt said the five-member screening panel he chairs will continue to vet new candidates to serve on the TransLink board and will also be reviewing the pay package within a year.
“It’s not engraved in stone,” Harcourt said. “It’s a work in progress – it’s a whole new structure.”
Asked whether he’s having any second thoughts about the pay package in light of public criticism, he said “no.”
“I feel quite grounded and fine with what we decided on,” Harcourt said.
The new port authority, an amalgamation of three previous port boards, has 11 directors who – assuming about a dozen board and committee meetings per year – will receive total combined annual compensation of around $375,000 per year.
Based on the same number of meetings, the nine TransLink directors will collectively be paid about $460,000.
The former TransLink board of 12 mayors and councillors got $122,000 combined in 2006.
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