Hydro CEO grilled on pay, helicopter

TORONTO, ONTARIO - A government committee grilled Hydro One executives on the CEO's seven-figure pay package and use of the corporate helicopter.

Liberal MPP Ernie Parsons called for an explanation of why Hydro One CEO Tom Parkinson was paid more than $1.56 million in 2005.

"The public has had a great deal of difficulty understanding it," Parsons said.

Hydro One chairman Rita Burak said the corporation based Parkinson's salary on the Hay system, a product of Hay Group, which compares compensation packages in the industrial category.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said a more accurate comparison would be made using B.C. Hydro, where the CEO earns about one-quarter of Parkinson's pay although the corporations are of similar size.

Hampton questioned Parkinson about his family's use of the corporate helicopter.

"It would be a rare and unusual circumstance... to accompany me on specific corporate business," Parkinson said. "If a member of my family was with me and there was no practical alternative, that would be the only circumstance."

A Hydro One spokesman said that Parkinson took his 10-year-old son with him to visit a tornado-damaged transmission tower north of Barrie in early August.

Hydro One vice-president Peter Gregg said Parkinson and his son were alone at the family cottage at the time.

Gregg said it was the only time that a Parkinson family member used the helicopter.