Ont. bureaucrats lose eHealth bonuses

Hundreds of eHealth Ontario bureaucrats will no longer receive bonuses and merit pay this year after the agency came under fire for planned increases at a time when the government promised a two-year wage freeze for public sector workers.

CEO Greg Reed said the bonuses were meant to reward the progress made in turning around the scandal-plagued agency, which was criticized in 2009 for spending $1 billion trying to develop electronic health records with little to show for it.

But when "placed in the context of the hard work eHealth Ontario still has to do in overcoming past challenges, and in light of the pressing financial circumstances that all Ontarians face, it is clear that this decision needs to be revisited," he said on Friday.

Employees will no longer receive merit increases and performance-linked incentives, said Reed, who also turned down his own bonus.

"There's been a real culture shift at eHealth Ontario under the new leadership and I think this decision demonstrates that new culture," said Health Minister Deb Matthews, who earlier this week was rebuked for failing to stop a promised 1.9 per cent merit raise and bonuses of 7.8 per cent.

Matthews said Wednesday she was disappointed to hear about the raises and asked Reed to take a closer look at the plan. But because the wage restraint rules have no force in law, the health minister didn't order eHealth to rescind the merit pay and bonuses, since they are allowed under the rules.

Close attention

Matthews would not say Friday whether there were similar increases at other agencies that should be revisited, but hinted they may want to follow eHealth's lead.

"This decision is one that other agencies are probably paying close attention to, and I want to applaud eHealth for coming to this decision," Matthews said in an interview.

Opposition parties had demanded the Liberal government put a stop to the hikes, saying it was unfair to freeze pay for front-line health-care workers like nurses while giving eHealth bureaucrats raises.

New Democrat Peter Kormos said Premier Dalton McGuinty should have made sure the hikes weren't promised in the first place, instead of taking them away "after he was caught lying to the people of Ontario."

"One can imagine the incredible diminishment of morale among eHealth staff, because notwithstanding that they have considerable salaries, this is still a horrible thing to do to them," Kormos said.

"But the fact that McGuinty authorized these bonuses in the first place should be shocking to most Ontarians."

Other agencies should also be scrutinized, Kormos added.

"You can bet your boots that there's going to be surprises emerging from any number of sectors in the broader public sector," he said.

Progressive Conservative Lisa MacLeod called the raises "insulting" for hard-working families, also suggesting the governing Liberals had moved to put a stop to the hikes only because they got caught.

"It doesn't surprise me given that Dalton McGuinty has backtracked on a number of his commitments for public sector wage freeze," said MacLeod.