CEO's Salaries

December 1, 2006

Brothers and Sisters,

The attached was printed in the Edmonton Journal on November 18th, 2006.

For the 2005 salaries of CPR's top executives, see http://www.tcrcmwed.ca/ENG/NEWS/CPRailUpper.html

Now that Fred Green is the CEO, we do not have his current salary, but in 2005 as a President and COO (Chief Operating Officer) he raked in $3,771,478.00. However, his boss at the time, CEO Rob Ritchie pocketed a cool $4,725,483.00 !!! Remember this was last year and now Rob Ritchie has retired.

Kinda makes you wonder what Freddie will take in for 2006. Will it be the same package as Robbie had or will there be a raise tacked on? After all the standard for the Unionized CPR workers in 2006, was 3%, and 3% of Rob's old package is only a little over 140K. A helluva a raise but merely a pittance compared to the almost $3,000,000.00 increase he saw from 2003 to 2005.

Well, we'll have to wait for the next " Canadian Pacific Railway Notice of Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders and Management Proxy Circular " to know for sure what Fred's getting for 2006 and beyond.

I have never met Fred Green, but I'm sure that he is a nice guy. And I believe that he knows his job and is an asset to the company. Hopefully, he cares about people and they care about him. But even with that said ..... I still find it hard to wrap my head around that kind of money. For any ONE employee of CPRail.

Take care and stay safe.

Bill Brehl

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Top CEOs well paid
Gary Lamphier, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, November 18, 2006
Two weeks ago, I took aim at a Conference Board of Canada report, which argued that current wage hikes of four to five per cent among Canadian workers could derail economic growth.
My beef wasn't with the board itself or its stats. We all know inflation is a bad thing. Left unchecked, it could indeed threaten Canada's prosperity.
But I did object to the board's fixation with the relatively modest pay gains being racked up by working stiffs at a time when many CEOs are laughing all the way to the bank. That kind of double standard is just a little rich.
The board isn't unique, mind you. Most Canadian economists turn a blind eye to the ludicrous pay increases granted to many corporate execs. Presumably, this is because their impact on the economy is small.
But this kind of reasoning is flawed. As any management guru will tell you, the tone of any organization is set at the top. Thus, a pocket-lining CEO is likely to breed pocket-lining VPs. Not to mention a work environment that's poisoned by cynicism.
Consider the latest issue of Alberta Venture magazine, which lists the 50 best-paid CEOs in the province.
Topping the list is Hank Swartout, CEO of Precision Drilling Trust. Swartout pocketed nearly $75 million last year, including $55 million in stock option profits.
To give you some context, Swartout's haul topped that of next four best-paid CEOs combined, and his 2005 income exceeded the total combined incomes of all 25 CEOs on the bottom end of Alberta Venture's top-50 list.
Mind you, these CEOs ran much smaller companies, such as Shell Canada, TransAlta, Canadian Natural Resources and Canadian Pacific Railway, to name a few.
Rounding out the top five were James Buckee, CEO of Talisman Energy ($23.3 million); ex-EnCana boss Gwyn Morgan ($18.2 million); Don Gray, CEO of Peyto Energy ($15.5 million); and William Andrew of Penn West ($12.1 million).
There wasn't a single CEO among the top 20 in the province who earned less than $4 million in 2005.
Now, let's be fair. Some CEOs fully deserved their lofty pay packages. But many others simply rode the crest of rising commodity prices to enrich their own bank accounts, at the expense of their shareholders.
And how do Edmonton's leading CEOs stack up?
Not a single one cracked the top 25. Larry Pollock, the veteran CEO of Canadian Western Bank, ranked 27th, with total compensation of nearly $2.9 million; and Stantec boss Tony Franceschini was 40th, at $1.5 million.
Based on their pay packets, and the consistently superior performances of their companies -- Stantec's share price hit another all-time high this week -- I'd say they're delivering great value for shareholders.
As for the greed-is-good crowd in Calgary, where the CEOs of no fewer than 19 income trusts are represented on the top-50 list, a new day is dawning.
With the feds calling a halt to the trusts' corporate tax dodge, some CEOs "might have to work until age 50," as one exec recently put it. Imagine that.
glamphier@thejournal.canwest.com