An Alberta-based farm group is at odds with the Canadian Wheat Board over benefits and perks paid to senior CWB executives.
The Western Barley Growers Association, a frequent critic of the CWB, wants the board to publish a detailed accounting of the perquisites and fringe benefits received by its senior management team.
The board says it already publishes information about salaries and benefits in its annual report, and anyone who wants more details can call and ask.
The barley growers raised the issue in the wake of a recent court case in which a former CWB commissioner lost a bid to recover $2 million in alleged damages from the federal government after his job was eliminated as a result of the 1998 restructuring of the grain marketing agency.
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That case painted a picture of a CWB official “living a life on the high road at the expense of farmers,” said barley growers association president Douglas McBain, and raises questions about the benefits now being paid.
McBain said the barley growers aren’t suggesting that senior CWB executives are overpaid; rather, they’re asking for more information.
“We’d like to see a fuller accounting of it,” he said in an interview from his farm at Cremona, Alta.
If the perks help the board sell grain and make money for farmers, the board should make that case to producers, he said.
“You may be making me money by paying these perks and benefits. If so, that’s good, but prove it to me.”
CWB spokesperson Louise Waldman said the board already publishes more information about executive compensation than is required by law.
The annual report for 2002-03 lists total senior management compensation of $3.63 million, made up of $2.37 million in salaries and $1.26 million in benefits. That includes life insurance, long-term disability coverage, pensions, employment insurance and extended health care.
It also includes perks paid to the five highest-paid CWB executives. Each executive receives a leased car and one club membership (four have health club memberships and one has a golf club membership).
The perks are limited in value to the lesser of $50,000 or 10 percent of total annual salary.
Since the largest salary at the board is $250,084 (paid to chief executive officer Adrian Measner) that means no individual’s perks exceed $25,000 in value. Waldman described those salaries, benefits and perks as modest by industry standards.
“CWB senior executives do not get stock options and a lot of other things that are considered to be standard perquisites in publicly traded companies,” she said. “And they receive significantly less than senior executives would get at other grain industry companies.”
For example, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool chief executive officer Mayo Schmidt received an annual salary in 2002-03 of $800,000 along with $824,304 in other annual compensation, for a total of more than $1.6 million.
By contrast, the top five executives at the CWB combined received a salary of about $954,000.
Waldman added that the board’s managers took a voluntary pay cut of five percent in 2002-03 in recognition of the difficult financial times being faced by grain farmers.
