It is that time of year again when taxpayers get a peak at the salaries of those they employ. This is part of the public sector compensation requirements where each government department, agency and commission must disclose the names and salaries of individuals with paycheques of $50,000 +/year.

After the end of the fiscal year, public bodies must make a disclosure report available for anyone that requests it. To date, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has obtained two of the reports from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) and Winnipeg School Division One.

According to the reports, Dr. Brian Postl, head of the WRHA, saw his salary increase by $28,000 to $387,000; and Jan Schubert, the Superintendent at Winnipeg One, saw her salary jump to $178,000, a $4000 increase from the previous year. Postl's salary now eclipses that of the prime minister of Canada, and his salary increase last year alone is nearly one year's income for the average Manitoban.

The Chairman of the WRHA, Dr. John Wade, claims a salary of this magnitude must be paid to someone like Postl because it is based on performance and he is supposedly in high demand from other jurisdictions in Canada. Wade also compares Postl's salary to that of the head of the Calgary Health Region, who is paid an absurd $1.2 million. One supposes he'd paid less than most NHL players too.

As for the Superintendent of Winnipeg One, although her salary hasn't increased in as dramatic a fashion as Postl's, there is little justification to pay her a wage that is well beyond what public expectations are. And no one is arguing that a competitive salary shouldn't be paid, but are they reasonable when there is no choice or competition in health care and very little options in education

These two layers of bureaucracy alone employee thousands of people and are arguably two of the most useless when it comes to providing services. Case in point: the WRHA received hundreds of millions of dollars for health care, yet wait lists are still growing and they barely managed to keep the Grace Hospital open. More to the point, it is doctors, nurses and support staff that are providing care and service to Manitobans, not the bureaucracy. The WRHA, in cahoots with the provincial government, has also managed to remove the one choice for citizens to purchase their own MRI's from the Maples Surgical Centre - who now reports to the health bureaucracy. The Maples had a turnover time for an MRI of 48 hours, compared to a 9 week government wait.

As for Winnipeg One, there has been a steady decline in enrollment for the past 5 years, yet school taxes have gone up every year by more than the rate of inflation, with few new programs have been added. The school boards have not reduced their spending to make up for shortfalls, and have continued to hire more staff.

Now that we as the taxpaying citizens of Manitoba have the opportunity to learn how much we pay for the salaries of fat cat CEOs and Superintendents of government run institutions, there is only one way to get these salaries frozen - call the Premier's office. He calls all the shots, in spite of what his government claims about these being arms lengths organizations - call him at 204-945-3714 and let him know these salaries don't comport with that of good governance and appropriate stewardship of taxpayer's money