Liberal cabinet ministers won’t comment on almost $1-million salary paid to Western president
Posted Mar 31, 2015 08:23:32 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Liberal cabinet ministers are refusing to say whether they think it was appropriate for a university president to be paid nearly $1 million because he didn’t take a sabbatical.
The so-called sunshine list of public sector employees paid over $100,000 last year revealed that Western University president Amit Chakma was paid $967,000, double his normal salary, because he worked through a scheduled one-year leave.
The London Free Press reports that Chakma has signed a new five-year contract that will also allow him the option of a one-year leave or double pay in 2019.
More than 1,400 people, including faculty members, have signed an online petition calling on university senators to bring a non-confidence motion against Chakma next month.
Deb Matthews, president of the Treasury Board, says she won’t comment on any individual on the sunshine list, which was published last week, other than to say the government knows there is a problem with executive compensation.
A bill that was passed late last year allows for caps on broader public sector executive compensation and Matthews says the government is in the process of developing them on a sector-by-sector basis, though she couldn’t say when those would be made public.
