Alberta government paid Dr. Deena Hinshaw record cash bonus in 2021

Alberta's chief medical officer of health last year received the largest cash benefit payout of any provincial civil servant since the government began posting records in 2016.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw's salarylast year was $363,634, but she also took home an additional $227,911 in "cash benefits" during the 2021 calendar year, according to the Alberta government's salary and severance disclosure database,which was updated last month.

Hinshaw is one of 107 employees in management positions who received extra pay for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, the provincial government says. The total extra compensation cost Albertans more than $2.4 million.

"The scale of the response to this unprecedented public health emergency required an extraordinary amount of additional work from the Office of the Chief Medical Officer, the Vaccine Task force, the Pandemic Response Team and others, which is reflected in the recent disclosure," Ministry of Health spokesperson Mark Feldbusch said in an email last week.

He said it is a long-standing policyon pay that has been in place during other emergencies, including the Fort McMurray wildfires in 2016 and southern Alberta floods of 2013.

Hinshaw's contract, which is posted online, does not specify the number of hours in her work week, nor does itinclude overtime provisions.

The Alberta government's extra pay to Hinshaw covers time she worked in excess of 45 hours per week. Itwas calculated using a formula devised by the public service commission,Feldbusch said.

He declined to say how many hours of overtime she worked.

CBC News compared Hinshaw'scompensation for the most recent years available to that of her counterparts in four other provinces, as well as that of Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, ofB.C., received $342,292 for the 2020-21 fiscal year. Henry did not receive any bonus pay in that time for pandemic management, a B.C. government spokesperson said.

Dr. Robert Strang, ofNova Scotia, received $305,645 in 2020-21. Hedid not receive any additional pay for pandemic management during 2020-21 or 2021-22, aNova Scotia government spokesperson said.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, ofSaskatchewan, received $411,416 in 2020-21 about $78,000 more than he receivedthe previous year.

The Saskatchewan government cannot say if Shahabreceived a bonus, because the law prevents it from releasing more details about civil servants' compensation,a Saskatchewan government spokespersonsaid.

Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, who started in the post on June 26, 2021, received $235,314 inthe 2021 calendar year.

The Ontario governmentcould not disclose whetherMoore received any bonus pay, a spokesperson said.

A Health Canada spokesperson said the government cannot release specific compensationtofederal officials, as it's considered personal information. Tam's contract from 2018 to June 2022 entitled her to a maximum salary of $265,000. The government has since raised her maximum salary to $324,000.

Hinshaw'sextrapay opaquely justified: bioethicist

Dr. James Talbot,a medical microbiologist, served asAlberta's chief medical officer of health from 2012 to 2015.

Talbot did not discuss additional pay for potential excessive overtime with Alberta government human resources personnel while he was in therole, he said.

The pandemic is an unprecedented situation that required public health officials to work a lot of overtime to properly respond to the emergency, soit's fair that Hinshaw was compensated for additional work,Talbot said.

Hinshaw'stotal compensation last year about $591,545 isn't out-of-line with what many medical specialists earn, he said. But her workload was likely comparable to that of hercounterpartsduring this time, makingher pay an outlier.

TheAlberta government's justification for the additional pay is opaque, saidArthur Schafer, a bioethicist and founding director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics.

Hinshaw was one of the best-paid in the country before the COVID-19 pandemic, and theprovincial government hasn't explained why her pay is a departure from what is normal nationally, he said.

"They're blowing smoke in the public's face," Schafersaid. "Top-level officials such as Dr. Hinshaw are not paid to work a 40-hour week. They're not salaried based on the number of hours they work. They're given very high remuneration."

Moving forward, Talbot expects medical officers of health and doctors applying for those positions to seekadditional danger pay, or assurances of security from their respective provincial governments, giventhe public outrage and threats Hinshaw and her counterparts have faced.

"The amount of stress that that position was under across the country was also unprecedented," he said. "I was only peripherally involved, and I got death threats."

Since late May 2021, the Alberta governmenthas paid Price Langevin and Associates, a private security firm, more than $262,000 toprotect Hinshaw, according to the province's sole-source contracts diclosure database.