Visit this page to see the total amount of LCBO Management Bonuses. The tab "bonuses data" at the bottom will take you to the actual dollars as disclosed under Freedom of Information Requests # 207115 and # 209233.
Starting in 1997 LCBO Managers were allowed to "earn" bonuses of $416,908, which has grown over the next eleven years to a somewhat larger $$$ 6,084,011 in 2008. This is almost 15 times the amount from 1997... In a more recent span of time, since 2001 the increase has been 5.63 times what it was in 2001. Since 2001 the "Dividend" paid to Ontario (Essentially LCBO "Profits") have increased at a much lower level. In 2001 the Dividend was $850 million, which by 2008 had increased to $1.345 billion, an increase of 1.58 times. The rate of increase for bonuses is more than three and a half times the rate of increase of the dividend (note that a significant part of the dividend increase can be explained by an increase in population and by inflation since 2001, while management bonuses can not be thus explained).
Consumer Price Index:
Population of Ontario:
The combination would explain {1.163 times 1.130} 31.4%, more than half of the 58.3% increase in dividends. Not included is that the population of Ontario is aging, with an ever-increasing percentage of the population of drinking age thus able to contribute to "Record Profits". Nor does it show the effects of the massive amount of taxpayer-funded advertising LCBO has done to increase sales, both in dollar per bottle and in total consumption (look at any copy of Food & Drink, my choice as the # 1 Porn Mag for Diabetics and Alcoholics in the world).
It should be noted that the LCBO has no competition in many of the areas from which it counts "Revenues", and in fact much of what they call profits comes from levies and charges, and from collections that have little to do with the bringing in of alcohol through a back door and selling it through the front. Is it true that where a 12% "Licencee Levy" used to be paid to Alcohol and Gaming on Restaurant sales that a 6% fee is now included in LCBO "Profits"? Some significant LCBO "Revenues" disguised as "Levies" or "Fees"may in fact be constitutionally considered as illegal taxes! {See what the Auditor General of Ontario had to say about this.} There are many examples and I plan a future article about these.
An unintentional indication of the Culture of Entitlement surrounding LCBO was the cost of procuring this information. In May 2007 I filed a Freedom of Information request asking for the total of Management Bonuses paid to LCBO employees between 2000 and 2006. This cost me $135 and provided much comprehensive information. This is detailed on this page but the significant fact is that when I requested only the amounts of bonuses for 1990 through 2008 exclusive of 2000 through 2006 I was required to pay a fee of $94.00 representing 3 hours work plus shipping. I received a 50 word paragraph saying there were no bonuses prior to 1997, and that they started July 1, 1997. In addition, there were 5 numbers printed for 97, 98, 99, 07 and 08. The shipping was a reasonable $4.00.
$94 for 5 numbers and 50 words!?!??
One would hope that an organization as large as LCBO would know the total amount of Management Bonuses paid each year. If they don't know these then what does it say about cost control!!!! Did they really spend three hours gathering information that should be publicly available on their website and in their annual reports????
So... does the $94 charge represent:
- inefficiency? (it really takes us 3 hours to type a one-page letter)
In my opinion, I view it as an attempt to hide the facts by charging high rates. Senior LCBO managers - who have little real competition - are in my opinion grossly overpaid when you add ever-increasing management bonuses to already high wages. And if they really don't know the amount that they have paid out I will continue to provide this information on lfw dot com.
Much as I am not a fan of WalMart, it would be interesting to see what would happen if LCBO had to deal with such competition ... I can see little justification for any kind of management bonuses in a protected Government-controlled industry where everyone should be, at the very least, considered adequately paid. And the fact that $6 million plus was paid to LCBO Managers during a period of economic turmoil when ordinary citizens were losing their jobs and savings says much about the lack of control from above LCBO.
RELATED ISSUE - the Salary Disclosure Act has provided much useful information over the years, and there is a file on my website detailing this from inception (1997) to date. You may also find this file detailing Sunshine list numbers to be of interest. From 1997 through 2008 this has increased from 10 to 184 people earning $100k plus per annum. This is 18.4 times the number of people as 1997. Guess we taxpayers are rich, right?
I worked for LCBO for all but 30 years, retiring in late 2004, but have not lost an iota of interest in the doings of senior LCBO management.
Dec 2001 - 97.4
Dec 2008 -113.3
Increase - 16.3% of Dec 2001 (Bank of Canada).
2001 - 11.410 million
2008 -12.892 million
Increase - 13.0% of 2001 (Stats Canada).
- entitlement? (we get WELL paid when we do anything)
- greed? (we will take EVERY opportunity to grab everything we can)
- incompetence? (it took us 3 hours to find the numbers)
- attempt to back off a little fat guy? (if we charge this flamethrower $100 every time he asks the time of day maybe he will drop dead or go away or something?)