Hydro chief returns to $1 million club

CEO Tom Parkinson's 2003 compensation hits $1,091,494
Clitheroe dismissal put spotlight on executive pay packages

Toronto Star - February 17, 2004
by John Spears — Business Reporter

The chief executive of Hydro One has crept back into the million-dollar pay club, company filings show.

Tom Parkinson appears to be the only hydro industry employee making $1 million or more in pay and bonuses since first the Conservatives and then the Liberals went on a campaign of bashing electricity industry executives.

Parkinson earned a salary of $643,659, a bonus of $325,000 and other compensation of $122,835 in 2003, Hydro One statements show. That's a total of $1,091,494.

Parkinson's "other" compensation includes subsidized mortgage interest payments. No figure for 2003 is given, but the cumulative total for all years is not to exceed $100,000.

Parkinson was made the sole chief executive last April 9, after sharing the title for eight months with company chair Glen Wright.

In 2002, as chief operating officer, he had earned a total of $879,627 in pay, bonus and other compensation.

The former Conservative government had driven salaries lower at Hydro One after public outrage erupted over former chief executive Eleanor Clitheroe's pay packet, which reached a total of $2.2 million in 2001.

She was let go in 2002, and is suing the company and its chair, Wright, who terminated her.

All Hydro One executives were ordered to take a pay cut following the Clitheroe episode, and all had been making less than $1 million until now.

Wright himself saw his compensation jump in 2003.

He had $149,326 in salary from Hydro One in 2002, after being made chief executive on July 19. He stepped down from the chief executive's role on April 9, 2003, and as chair on May 30, but remains a director.

His salary dropped to $129,850 in 2003, but he was also awarded a bonus of $143,524, for a total of $273,374.

Wright is also chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). His pay for 2003 hasn't been disclosed. In 2002, he earned $168,269.50 at the WSIB, but $43,588.29 was covered by Hydro One for a net total of $124,681.21.

Salaries have also been an issue at Ontario Power Generation, especially after the Liberals came to power last fall and Energy Minister Dwight Duncan harshly criticized the company's performance.

Former chief executive officer Ron Osborne, who earned a total of $1,659,654 in 2001, had already taken a voluntary pay cut in 2002 by requesting his employer not pay him a bonus. That dropped Osborne from the million-dollar club, reducing his pay in 2002 to $942,811.

OPG's executive pay figures haven't been released for 2003. But given that Duncan ended the year by firing Osborne, chief operating officer Graham Brown and chair William Farlinger, it's unlikely they collected bonuses.

The terminated executives could collect big cheques for 2003 if OPG awards them severance or termination payments, an issue that remains unclear.

Osborne made less at OPG than former chief nuclear officer Eugene Preston, who made $2.5 million in 2002.

Preston, who left Ontario Power Generation in October that year, collected a $1.4 million retirement benefit.

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