Ruckus hits PEI over health executives’ pay

CHARLOTTETOWN – Former Health P.E.I. CEO Dr. Michael Gardam (pictured) is pushing back on a recent claim that former members of his executive leadership team (ELT) colluded to provide themselves with higher salaries.

Gardam said he felt recent claims made by current Health P.E.I. CEO Mel Fraser, that members of his executive leadership team had “signed off on each other’s forms” to allow salary increases over the course of 2023, were “offensive.”

Fraser made the remarks during a meeting of the standing committee on public accounts on Feb. 4.

“There was no conspiracy of ELT members. That is so offensive I don’t even know where to begin with that,” Gardam said.“You had some incredibly dedicated civil servants who either resigned or were fired. And there was no conspiracy. The only person who made the decision on this was me.”

According to The Guardian newspaper, salary increases for five of the Health P.E.I. executives were flagged in a report by the province’s auditor general last October. That report found that contracts for these five executives, which increased their salaries over the course of 2023, did not receive approval from the treasury board or from the minister of health.

Fraser was asked to speak about the auditor general’s report before the legislative public accounts committee on Feb. 4.

During her appearance, Fraser repeatedly said multiple executive leaders had circumvented treasury board rules.

“Internal controls that would normally be used to manage increases in salary, increases in associated payroll, were circumvented. And we had executives who signed off on each other’s forms to support the implementation of this,” Fraser told the committee.

Fraser said some executives had “not undertaken their fiduciary responsibilities and had circumvented the rules.” She said she took action after becoming aware of the findings of the audit, months before its release. She did not specify what this action was.

In late September, before the audit was released, Fraser confirmed to The Guardian that four executive leadership team members were no longer with the organization.

In an interview, Gardam said he found Fraser’s assertions “appalling.”

“I made the decision to do this. The chief human resources officer recused herself entirely from this discussion because she knew she was one of the executive leadership team members,” he said.

Gardam also said his chief financial officer was a “straight shooter” and was “honestly the most dedicated Health P.E.I. person I have ever met.”

Gardam said he has stayed quiet on the subject of executive salaries for several months but spoke to The Guardian because the matter keeps being brought up.

Gardam frequently clashed with the King government over plans to open a satellite medical school at UPEI this fall.

He believes the government’s focus on the audit was an attempt to “discredit me as an outgoing health leader.”

He said he sees a parallel with the recent firing of an Alberta Health Services CEO after she launched an internal investigation into procurement deals with private surgery facilities in that province.

“It’s not lost on me that everybody who’s been fired or who has quit were all people who were trying to change the system and fight against the system so that we could make it easier for us to do our jobs,” Gardam said.