Alberta’s chief medical officer last year received the largest cash compensation of any public servant in the province since the government began releasing records in 2016.
Dr. Deanna Hinshaw’s salary last year was $363,634, but she also collected an additional $227,911 in “cash benefits” in calendar year 2021, according to the Alberta government’s salary and benefits disclosure database, which was updated last month.
Hinshaw is one of 107 employees in management positions who have received extra pay for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, the provincial government says. The total additional compensation cost Albertans more than $2.4 million.
“The scale of the response to this unprecedented public health emergency requires an extraordinary amount of additional work from the Office of the Chief Medical Officer, the Vaccine Task Force, the Pandemic Response Team and others, which is reflected in the recent disclosure,” Department of Health spokesman Mark Feldbusch said in an email last week.
He said it’s a long-standing pay policy that has been in place during other emergencies, including the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires and the 2013 floods in southern Alberta.
Hinshaw’s contract, which is posted online, does not specify the number of hours in her work week, nor does it include overtime provisions.
Hinshaw’s overtime pay from the Alberta government covers the time she worked over 45 hours per week. It’s calculated by a formula developed by the Public Service Commission, Feldbusch said.
He declined to say how many hours of overtime she worked.
CBC News compared Hinshaw’s compensation in recent years with that of her colleagues in four other provinces, as well as that of Dr. Teresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer.
Dr. Bonnie Henry of British Columbia received $342,292 for the 2020-21 fiscal year. During that time, Henry has not received any bonuses for managing the pandemic, a British Columbia government spokesman said.
Nova Scotia’s Dr. Robert Strang received $305,645 in 2020-21. He received no additional pay for pandemic management in 2020-21 or 2021-22, a Nova Scotia government spokesperson said.
Saskatchewan’s Dr. Saqib Shahab received $411,416 in 2020-21 — about $78,000 more than he received the previous year.
The Saskatchewan government could not say whether Shahab received a bonus because the law does not allow it to release more details about public employee compensation, a Saskatchewan government spokesperson said.
Ontario’s Chief Health Officer, Dr. Kieran Moore, who started on June 26, 2021, was paid $235,314 in the 2021 calendar year.
The Ontario government could not disclose whether Moore received a bonus, a spokesman said.
Hinshaw’s extra pay vaguely justified: a bioethicist
Dr. James Talbot, a medical microbiologist, served as Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer from 2012 to 2015.
Talbot did not discuss additional pay for potential excessive overtime with Alberta government human resources staff while in the role, he said.
The pandemic is an unprecedented situation that has forced public health officials to work a lot of overtime to properly respond to the emergency, so it’s only fair that Hinshaw be compensated for the extra work, Talbot said.
Hinshaw’s total compensation last year — about $591,545 — is not out of line with what many medical professionals earn, he said. But her workload was probably comparable to that of her colleagues during that time, causing her to pay overtime.
The Alberta government’s rationale for the additional payment is opaque, said Arthur Shaffer, a bioethicist and founding director of the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba.
Hinshaw was one of the highest paid in the country before the COVID-19 pandemic and the provincial government has not explained why her pay is a national outlier, he explained.
“They’re blowing smoke in the public’s face,” Schafer said. “Top level officials like Dr Hinshaw are not paid to work 40 hour weeks. They are not paid based on the number of hours they work. They get very high remuneration.”
Moving forward, Talbot expects health officials — and doctors applying for those positions — to seek additional hazard pay or security guarantees from their respective provincial governments, given the public outcry and threats Hinshaw and her colleagues face.
“The amount of stress placed on this position across the country has also been unprecedented,” he said. “I was only peripherally involved and received death threats.”
As of late May 2021, the Alberta government has paid Price Langevin and Associate, a private security firm, more than $262,000 to protect Hinshaw, according to the province’s sole-source contract disclosure database.
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