A rchive Date
[ 21-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoMoney/ts.ts-06-06-0056.html
THE $6M WOMAN
Marks to Eves for cutting the flow
By Linda Leatherdale, Money Editor
Thursday, June 6, 2002
Today, I applaud Premier Ernie Eves for standing up for the real owners and shareholders of Hydro One - Ontario's taxpayers. And let me add that it's about time we had some common sense at Queen's Park.
By firing the board of Hydro One - which failed taxpayers by dishing out obscene pay packages, bonuses and golden parachutes to executives who haven't even proven themselves - Eves joins a growing number of leaders who know something's rotten in our securities industry. The first to fight back was Tom Caldwell, chairman of Caldwell Securities Ltd., who went to Ottawa last week to speak out before the Senate banking committee hearings.
Since the Enron scandal - the biggest bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, which robbed employees and shareholders of some $4 billion while executives walked away with millions - regulators have been clamping down.
Enron, which donated money to Ontario's Tories, is also accused of manipulating prices in California's deregulated electricity market.
Even Alan Greenspan, who heads the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, wants a spotlight shone on the worms who are undeservedly lining their own pockets, especially through lucrative stock options, which dilute the value of common shares and are not properly reported in financial statements.
In Canada, a prime example is Nortel Networks CEO John Roth, who walked away with $123 million in his jeans - leaving behind shares that crashed from $124.50 to as low as $2.70 yesterday, 53,500 lost jobs and the biggest corporate losses in Canadian history.
In an interview yesterday, Caldwell said, "I've never been in a business deal where someone says, if it doesn't work out, I'll pay you millions of dollars."
Caldwell, who's joined with forensic accountant Al Rosen to blow the whistle on abusive boards and CEOs, was referring to the $6 million in cash, plus up to $1 million in a lifelong annual pension, 47-year-old Hydro One President Eleanor Clitheroe would receive if she decided to leave.
Last year, Clitheroe - a former provincial deputy finance minister who was named chancellor of the University of Western Ontario in October 2000 - took home a $750,000 salary, a $806,000 bonus, vacation pay of $172,000, a car allowance of $175,000, plus other income of $297,000.
Yesterday, Energy Minister Chris Stockwell said Clitheroe will still stay on as president and a board member, after Hydro One's board resigned en masse in face of being fired.
A new board of directors has been ordered to scale back Clitheroe's pay, along with golden parachutes for senior executives that would cost taxpayers $12 million.
Believe me, if taxpayers hadn't protested the selling off of Hydro One, which stopped the biggest IPO (initial public offering) in Canada's history - Clitheroe and her gang would still be laughing all the way to the bank with our money.
"If Hydro One had been sold off (on May 1 as planned), the government would not be able to introduce legislation to get rid of this bunch," said Paul Kahnert of the Ontario Electricity Coalition, which won a court injunction to stop the sale.
Even Stockwell admits the old board was arrogant:
"They basically told us (the government) to get stuffed," he said, referring to the board's reaction to a request to scale back compensation packages.
Kahnert commented, "by tendering their resignation en masse, the Hydro One board has shown their disrespect for the people of Ontario, who have built up the transmission grid asset that they are so eager to profit from."
ABUSES AS A MONOPOLY
Now, here's the bottom line. We, the taxpayers of Ontario, own this resource called electricity.
We put up with over-spending, lack of accountability and abuses as a government-run monopoly. And now we watch in horror as the greed grows with deregulation, while we're forced to pay for Ontario Hydro's debt caused by mismanagement.
Enough.
It's time we took control. Thanks, Eves, for taking the first step. But this fight is far from over
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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