The pandemic has paid off for senior executives in the health network. Some of them saw their salaries jump by 80% in 2020 compared to the previous year, TVA Nouvelles has learned.
At the Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) of the North Shore, the salary of the highest paid manager is even around half a million dollars in 2021, more than double that received by the Prime Minister.
The remarkable increase in some of the salaries is mainly due to the overtime that senior executives (directors of the Integrated Health and Social Service Centers and the Integrated University Health and Social Service Centers) worked at the time of the pandemic.
Unlike health workers, they did not receive “COVID bonuses” during the recent critical period.
The data obtained by TVA Nouvelles was provided by 16 of the 22 CISSSs and CIUSSSs in the province, following access to information requests.
According to the explanations provided, salaries include amounts claimed in expense reports, but these only account for a few thousand dollars in the total amount and have, in most cases, remained lower or similar to those claimed before the health crisis.
Among the entire list of salaries provided to TVA Nouvelles, it is the CISSS de la Côte-Nord that wins the prize for the biggest increase. The highest-paid top executive raked in nearly $200,000 more than before the pandemic for the year ending Dec. 31, 2020.
It is closely followed by the Director of Public Health of Montreal, affiliated with the CIUSSS Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, going from $283,460 per year before the pandemic to $464,580 for the year 2020. It must be said that Mylène Drouin experienced her share of challenges at the outbreak of the pandemic, while several of the cases of COVID-19 were in the metropolis.
The salaries received by CIUSSS executives working in the East-of-the-Island of Montreal and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean are not left out: the director of professional services of the first received, in 2020, 164 $000 more than before the pandemic, while the director of professional services of the second establishment received, in 2020, nearly $60,000 more than before the crisis.
Of note: In 2021, several managers saw their salaries return closer to what they were in 2019.
By way of comparison, the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, earned $205,793 in 2020-2021, while his Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, received $168,282.
