'Somewhere, there is a board of directors that either did not do its job or that found a rationale for it'
A new study has found some of the heads of Canadian charities in environment, conservation and animal protection are paid more than premiers.
The Canadian Press study found 17 charitable organizations whose top bosses were paid more than $200,000 annually, according to T3010 filings with the federal government made in 2022 and 2023. These charities make up 1% of the total number of charities in their two categories.
The premiers of Ontario and Quebec earned around $208,000 annually until June, when Quebec's legislature approved a 30% pay increase, resulting in the raise of Quebec premier Francois Legault's salary to $270,120.
Charities with most generous compensation
Most of the 864 registered charities in these sectors rely on volunteers or low-paid workers. Almost 59% are entirely operated by volunteers, and 14% earn no more than $40,000. Additionally, 15% of these charities have employees making no more than $80,000, according to the Canadian Press.
Among these, Ducks Unlimited Canada, which has 565 employees in Manitoba, had the most generous compensation. In their 2023 filing, two individuals declared earning more than $350,000 each, three received salaries between $250,000 and $300,000, and four earned between $200,000 and $250,000.
Ducks Unlimited received $27 million from governments in its latest fiscal year, with a quarter of its $140 million revenue coming from donations.
Responding to inquiries from the Canadian Press, Janine Massey, a spokesperson for Ducks Unlimited, highlighted that the organization is the largest nature conservancy in Canada.
"It is difficult to compare environmental non-profits due to wide variation in mission, scale and complexity of operations,” she said. “We regularly undertake competitive compensation reviews and adjust our compensation accordingly to ensure that we can attract and retain highly skilled personnel.”
Does high compensation align with missions?
Sylvie St-Onge, professor of management at Montreal business school HEC and an expert in compensation management, noted that the environmental sector is an industry all its own. “They’re going to compare themselves to others in the industry who are like a core group of well-offs,” she said.
At the David Suzuki Foundation in Vancouver, one manager earned over $250,000 in the year ending August 31, 2022, with three others making over $200,000, according to the Canadian Press. A spokesperson for the foundation, Charles Bonhomme pointed out that their offices are located “in the most expensive cities in Canada: Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.” He said the foundation employs just under a hundred people and has changed personnel since then after an independent review of their salaries.
St-Onge expressed doubts regarding the high compensation aligning with the mission of these organizations, citing the contradiction between high pay and the values they advocate for in sustainable development.
“Somewhere, there is a board of directors that either did not do its job or that found a rationale for it,” she said, according to the Canadian Press. “In these organizations, it is not so much the best in terms of expertise that you need, but the best in terms of mobilization, faith, belief in adherence to the mission — someone who doesn’t come so much to get the money.”
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