The Government of Saskatchewan announced that it will be reducing compensation for Crown Corporation executives.

Crown CEOs and Vice-Presidents will their salary holdbacks reduced by just over 66 percent., with Crown Investments Corporation (CIC) executive seeing their holdbacks eliminated entirely.

Crown Investments Minister Don Morgan says the province doesn’t think it’s fair to offer big compensation to select people while many people are struggling financially.

“We felt it was the right thing to do, to send a message to people that we’re supporting all of the workers in the province,” said Morgan. “What this was targeted towards was a bonus, and in some places, it was in the tens of thousands of dollars.”

Prior to the change, salary holdbacks could add anywhere between 10 and 25 percent to an executive’s yearly compensation, depending on their management level.

Morgan says the decision is purely financial, and not based on performance.

“These people work hard, are competent, professional, and delivering really good service to our crowns,” said Morgan. “It’s not done with targeting poor performance or asking them to leave or anything else.”

The changes will apply to 54 executives at 8 Crown Corporations including the CIC, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SGI, SaskWater, SOCO, and SaskGaming,

When asked if the cuts will drive people to leave, Morgan says he doesn’t see that being an issue.

“We expect you to be there, committed to the Crown Corporation you work for, committed to delivering sound service to the citizens of the province, if you’re not up to that, then you shouldn’t be there,” said Morgan. “I think the people that we have there, are some of the finest, hard working people that are there. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”

The compensation reductions are estimated to create $1.82 million in savings per year.