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UPDATES: Province wants ICBC to reduce costs, President to step down
VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980)
Charmaine de Silva | Email news tips to charmaine.desilva@corusent.com
8/16/2012

A review of ICBC reveals the insurer has an inflated management team, better compensated than most others in the public sector.


Over the past five years compensation for ICBC senior managers has jumped 70-percent, while the number of senior managers increased 41-percent.


Finance Minister Kevin Falcon says government didn't notice, because rates either dropped, or increases were small.

"We accept full responsibility for that...so I don't want to be cute about this. This is something that I accept responsibiilty and government accepts responsibility for."

Recommendations include reducing the management team to 2008 levels -- which means between 165 and 195 jobs will be cut over the next two years.


New executives must also be paid 10-percent less than their predecessor, under new executive compensation guidelines announced last month.


As the review of ICBC is released, comes news its C-E-O is leaving.


ICBC Chair Paul Taylor says jon schubert is resigining his post as CEO as of November 15th.

"We've decided by mutual agreement, in the interests of the report we've received, that we are going to make this change."

But Schubert isn't leaving the organization altogether.


He'll stay on as an advisor to the board until June, receiving the same salary he has been until then.

 


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  • 19
  1. ChrisM_18 posted on 08/16/2012 10:38 AM
    So what would force ICBC to follow these recommendations other than public pressure ?
    If ICBC do make the cuts would we see a reduction in rates or would any excess go back into general revenue for the government ?
    1. ChrisM_18 posted on 08/16/2012 12:00 PM
      @ChrisM_18 Now the ICBC President is resigning as a reult of this report . In private business when you quit you don't get a severance package. Do the same rules apply here or does this guy get a 6 figure kiss off ?
    2. DonaldW_4 posted on 08/16/2012 01:08 PM
      @ChrisM_18 It is a crown corp. and as a result has to follow the recommendations... As well there is nothing wrong with savings going to general revenue of the govt..
      Government needs money to provide the goods and services you use everyday, and it has to get the money from somewhere either by direct taxation (income tax) or from other sources such as crown corp. surpluses .. at least if they take it from ICBC there has been the opportunity for the revenue to grow unlike direct taxation.

      Good for Kevin Falcon in takiing this on and quodos for taking the flack that goes with it... Don't get sucked in by the hysteria that Commentators Like Michael Smythe like to create/
  2. CarolynB_0261 posted on 08/16/2012 10:47 AM
    First efficiency - Stop letting the government siphon off millions every year. Falcon needs to look at the legislature first for efficiencies. Cut their communications departments first, then get rid of all the advisers especially those sent over by Harper.
  3. michael_4092 posted on 08/16/2012 10:48 AM
    I am no fan of ICBC, but what will happen is this:

    More low-middle income earners getting laid off and the managers keeping their over-payed salaries and bonuses, RIGHT CHRISTY??????????

    FAMILIES FIRST EVERYONE, but only if you're rich and have connections.
  4. noparty posted on 08/16/2012 11:01 AM
    When is the Gov. going to lead by example??? You have to do something about your own OUTRAGEOuS COMPENSATION an bloated staff before you will ever have any credibility to tell someone else they are getting to much!!! AND I haven't heard the party in waiting saying they will address this situation!!
    1. ChrisM_18 posted on 08/16/2012 12:04 PM
      @noparty Don't hold your breath waiting if Dixhead and the Never Dumber party get in - they are going to give you an even bigger government !
  5. noparty posted on 08/16/2012 12:57 PM
    Soooo the Pres is leaving in Nov. but staying on as an advisor til June, AT THE SAME SALARY, is that so he can top up his pension, severance pay, etc. and find a new appointment at the trough? Meanwhile will we be paying TWO presidents? How is that cutting the management team???? WHAT A CROCK!!!!!
    1. Fate posted on 08/16/2012 02:32 PM
      @noparty That's exactly what I was going to say.
  6. CS_3078 posted on 08/16/2012 01:57 PM
    If Schubert didn't do a good job running the place, why on earth would you want to keep him on as an "advisor?" What will he be advising on? What not to do?!
  7. hha posted on 08/16/2012 02:42 PM
    This is classic current MBA practice. They are far too well trained at this malice than a politician of any stripe can catch in 4 years.
    It's a very large problem for taxpayers and consumers today. They go to Utilties, hospitals, railroads etc. where exec's cannot find them and exec's rely on the values that they cook themselves.

    Hi level admisitrators in Crown Corp.'s rarely answer to anyone.
    They create the figures. They submit the figures.

    They build moats of lower managers around themselves for protection.
    They re-write business practices for job creation.

    It is exacly the same as the situation in hospitals where there are many, many admistrators in every hospital making well over $ 200K.

    The essence of the problem is that until their proliferation beginning about 35 years ago Dr.'s, head nurses and accountants ran hospitals.
    In those days, hospitals did not have waiting lines, nursing shortages, they were extremely clean and - THERE WAS NO DEBT OR DEFICIT.

    Kudos to the regular guy from Cloverdale.
  8. DavidM_4081 posted on 08/16/2012 03:28 PM
    So just how much will the job cuts of 165-195 managers cost the taxpayers in severance packages? And if there is an inflated management team at ICBC, how is it that Liberal MLA Kevin Kruger can just assume his old management position after a 16 year leave? Wish the media would look into that one!
  9. RegA [deleted] posted on 08/16/2012 03:44 PM
    This carry-on is the pinnacle of blatant, mismanagement of a mandatory tax. Government is there to manage our tax dollars, n'est pas? Why do I get the gut feeling, all these big shots, are on the tit as long as possible, knowing full well, the fan will clog up, and they will either be out on their ass, or working for maybe 30% of what they have taken for years.

    ICBC is a mandatory tax collection. Schubert feels the heat, and will pack it in mid November, yet the organization will give him another bite of the pie until June. This is greed at it's finest. I wonder if he could actually tell the public what HE really does all week. Meetings are a crock, as they are a damn good excuse to look busy and have a free lunch. What does he actually do, along with all the people under his domain that he condones and grossly overpays?
    And if you think this stinks, why doesn't someone like Smyth stick his little nose into an involuntary tax! BCLC. If the public got a wiff of the smell over there, I could see a revolt. I have suggested this to Smyth, but he must have got paid off to take a powder. Any organization that earns 700% has the POWER to tell people what to do. This one makes ICBC look like a church bake sale!
    1. DN posted on 08/17/2012 10:36 AM
      @RegA [deleted] I don't think ICBC is a mandatory tax collection. It is mandatory for car insurance but if you don't have a car I don't believe any actual tax dollars go to ICBC.

      I am not defending them, because I do not have all the facts. I do know that private industry also has very high salaries for executives but no one seems to care about that.

      Glad that things are being looked at for salaries though. Not sure why the pres should keep a pres salary for those months of being an "advisor".
  10. SueW_1184 posted on 08/17/2012 11:23 AM
    Why are the Liberals so far behind on these reviews of government overcompensation? Really these Crown corporation managers and board members should be sued by the people for defrauding the taxpayers. The Liberals should be put out for their lax approach. Why are we paying even more to this ICBC CEO swindler? Corporate mentality and tax dollars are a deadly combination when it comes to fiscal responsibility. The Liberals are in love with this coporate model of governance, but how out of place it has proven to be in a "free money" environment. The "little people" are attacked by union busting strategies, while the boards grant sweeping increases to upper management.
  11. AnneH_4 posted on 08/17/2012 01:49 PM
    10% cut is not much of a cut
    1. michael_4092 posted on 08/17/2012 03:41 PM
      @AnneH_4 ESPECIALLY when hospital workers were FORCED to take a 15% cut just a few years ago.

      NICE ONE!
  12. miltw posted on 08/17/2012 05:22 PM
    So the CEO decides that because of how badly he ran the corporation they are in trouble and he quits.
    The corporation decides that is exactly the type of upfront honest person they were looking for and hire him as a consultant to tell them that they are 67 managers light which is what caused the problem.case They in turn hire 76 new managers to be safe.Case closed all fixed and everybody gets rich except the poor suckers who have to pay for insurance.
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