On the heels of news Alberta taxpayers doled out more than $2.4 million in bonuses to healthcare managers and bureaucrats in 2021, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) said Albertans should be furious. .A recent update to the province's salary and severance disclosure table on the Government of Alberta website showed more than 100 employees in management positions took bonuses — some seven figures — throughout the pandemic, including Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's top doctor. .Hinshaw, who currently makes a six-figure base salary of $363,634 as Alberta's chief medical officer of health, was paid $227,911 in "cash benefits" for 2021. Jing Hu, Alberta's deputy medical officer of health took a cash benefit of $142,534 for 2021. .More than 100 other employees in managerial positions took varying amounts of bonuses as well including several senior managers with bonuses of more than $80,000 each. ."There is no way Albertans should have to fund six-figure bonuses on top of six-figure salaries," said Franco Terrazzano, federal director at the CTF. ."So many Albertans have suffered financially, not just during the pandemic, but for years before, as well. These government bureaucrats should share in shouldering the burden in these tough times, but instead they're asking already struggling Albertans to pay out these six-figure bonuses.".Terrazzano said top bureaucrats and those in management positions should have "shared in the tough times" by taking pay cuts rather than claiming bonuses while Albertans struggled through the pandemic. .United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership candidate Danielle Smith also took to Twitter on Monday to call out the Alberta government for the hefty payouts. .“'We’re all in this together' didn’t mean what we thought it did…" she said in the tweet.."Albertans are rightly stunned & outraged they gave Dr. Hinshaw @CMOH_Alberta a $228k Covid bonus."."As Premier, not only will we not lockdown again or impose vaccine mandates, we will have a full review into the handling of the pandemic, including the role our CMOH of health played in it.".Brian Jean, another UCP leadership candidate, also took the opportunity to call out the payouts. ."While Albertans were losing businesses, while our health system was collapsing under mismanagement, the people on the Sky Palace balcony signed off on an all-time record bonus," Jean tweeted. ."This bonus is a slap in the face to every Albertan who lost hours, lost a job, or lost their business," said Jean in a statement in the tweet. ."Cabinet made [two] years of bad decisions and this is just insult added to injury."
