Tory defends TCHC executive performance bonuses

Three Toronto Community Housing execs received performance bonuses despite a massive backlog in repairs.


Thestar.com
March 23, 2015
By Betsy Powell

Mayor John Tory is defending the fact three Toronto Community Housing Corp. executives received performance bonuses recently even if the “optics are less than perfect” when the social housing agency is facing a $1-billion repair backlog.

“I’m satisfied there was a rigorous process that was gone through to decide to pay them,” Tory said Monday at Toronto City Hall.

Tory said he looked at the details behind the payouts to ensure they were based on “real, tangible, measurable criteria.” He gave it a “C plus or a B minus” and said while there’s “room for improvement,” he’s pleased the bonuses were tied to things such as “money budgeted for repairs actually spent on repairs.”

Tory was reacting to a published report that TCHC’s chief executive officer Greg Spearn and general counsel/corporate secretary Pamela Spencer each received 20 per cent of their base pay.

The Toronto Sun reported that chief financial officer Jason Gorel was paid 15 per cent of his base salary, which was $189,322 in 2013 according to TCHC’s public sector salary disclosure list. Spearn made the same amount in 2013, when he was chief development officer. The article suggested the combined total of three bonuses could top $125,000. (Spencer joined the organization in 2014 so had no reportable TCHC salary for 2013.)

Councillor Ana Bailao, who sits on the TCHC board and was at the Feb. 19 meeting when the bonuses were approved, defended the payouts. She wouldn’t discuss the amount because the item is still “in camera” but said the numbers will all come out when the public-sector disclosure list is made public.

“I think it makes sense, you perform better, your pay is better, if your performance is not OK, if you don’t do what you were managed to do, then you don’t get it,” she said.

She noted that in 2014, Spearn did two jobs - CEO and chief development officer - after he replaced the previous CEO who was fired. Spencer was also doing the human resources position, in addition to her corporate secretary job, Bailao said.

Bailao added that as the largest landlord in Canada - TCHC has 164,000 renters, 2,000 buildings and $1 billion under redevelopment - the corporation needs to attract competent people to tackle the huge repair backlog, among other challenges.

“In order to do that you need to be somewhat competitive in order to attract the caliber of people that we need to run such a large organization.”