Would you like a job that pays $726,000 a year, plus expenses?

Would you like that salary to make you the ninth highest-paid public servant in the province?

Would you like to still have enough time on your hands to be able to hold down another position with a multi-billion-dollar private company that pays an extra $340,000 a year?

Nice work if you can get it, eh?

Well, that’s exactly what has happened with Kevin Smith, the chief executive officer of Hamilton-based St. Joseph’s Health System, who is one of the highest-paid public-sector employees in Ontario.

Last year, Smith made $726,315 in pay and taxable benefits as CEO of St. Joseph’s Health System and Niagara Health System. It’s a huge job, with responsibilities for hospitals, long-term care facilities and home-care operations in Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph, Brantford and the Niagara region. Its total operating budgets top well over $1 billion a year and employs more than 12,000 workers.

At the same time, Smith was making $357,000 a year as chair of Home Capital Group Inc., the embattled private lending company that has been making front-page news for weeks after it was revealed the firm was under investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission.

Smith’s contract with St. Joseph’s states that “the Employee shall devote the whole of his working time and attention to the business and affairs of the System.”

The position of board chair of a major private company often requires 1,000 hours or more a year. That number can soar when there’s a major crisis, as has happened with Home Capital.

Ontario taxpayers would be right to be shocked at how a high-paid health-care CEO can hold down two jobs at the same time.

Indeed, if the government is paying that much money, shouldn’t they expect a full-time commitment?

In fact, though, there are virtually no restrictions on outside employment for these high-paid public-sector executives. It’s a situation that raises legitimate questions about whether taxpayers — and the government — are getting full value for their money.

“You have to ask, how could he possibly run St. Joseph’s, while heading up a multi-billion dollar company?” asked Conservative finance critic Vic Fedeli in the legislature last week. “Is it right that a hospital CEO, who should be focused on health care, have another full-time job?”

By all accounts, Smith, 54, is a top health-care administrator. He’s been described as an extraordinary talent, a “go-to guy” who is often called upon to join public sector boards, such as the Ontario Hospital Association board, which he was on from 2002 to 2011 and was chair from 2009 to 2010.

Smith stepped down as chair of Home Capital earlier this week, but remains on its board of directors. He told Canadian Press that while his position at Home Capital had been more demanding in recent weeks, he found that the demands of both jobs was “very manageable.”

Brian Guest, interim VP people and organizational effectiveness at St. Joseph’s, said in an interview that Smith used vacation days when he was doing work for Home Capital. He gets six weeks vacation a year.

Guest said the St. Joseph’s board has long been aware of and supports Smith’s involvement with Home Capital, adding Smith has always been available to handle work at St. Joseph’s and that his performance reviews have been exemplary.

At Queen’s Park, both Premier Kathleen Wynne and Health Minister Eric Hoskins have taken pains to avoid commenting on Smith’s dual roles.

Wynne said she fully expects Smith to be fulfilling his responsibilities in his health-care job, adding he “is being paid very well for the job, but more importantly it’s an extremely important job and it’s an extremely complex one.”

Hoskins said only that while Queen’s Park funds public hospitals they are independent corporations and are run by teams dedicated to quality care.

Instead of such side-stepping, Wynne and Hoskins need to assure Ontario taxpayers they are getting full value for their money from these highly paid public servants and that the executives are devoting full attention to their public-sector jobs.

To do that, Queen’s Park should act quickly to require top-paid public servants restrict their outside involvements to non-profit organizations in their own field, such as a health-care executive raising awareness and funds for cancer or other diseases.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Also, the government should immediately stop these executives from working for private, for-profit companies that require huge commitments of time and attention.

By ending such practices, Wynne can send a message to taxpayers that their money, at least when it comes to executive pay, is being spent properly.

Bob Hepburn’s column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

Read more about: