Health Pei has hired six senior managers interimly through private employment agencies to costs from $ 17,490 per month to $ 43,750 per month.
This information is contained in a series of contracts that the province provided to CBC News.
These managers are occupying some of the most senior roles in the health agency, including the medical director, the operations director and the financial director.
Melanie Fraser, CEO of Health Pei, says that private employment agencies provided monthly experienced personnel to maintain the medical care system while working to develop a permanent leadership team. She says it was well spent money.
“I think it is important to compare what we are paying for month during the month compared to what we would pay for a salaried professional,” Fraser said in an interview with CBC News.
“When you break up on a month to month base, it is basically the same amount that we are paying the interim person in front of what we were paying for the previous salaried person.”
But the numbers show a significant increase in the cost to use private employment firms.
For example, Health Pei is paying a private company for its interim medical director.
That contract, which takes place from January 6, 2025 to January 5, 2026, is costing the health authority $ 43,750 per month or around $ 525,000 per year. That figure includes salary and benefits for the person, as well as the company’s rate.
The executive director of Health Pei, Melanie Fraser, says she had no choice but to take people to work in executive roles using private employment agencies. This is because the authority had to “end or end the contracts” for several upper managers after the convicted report of the general auditor last October. Wayne Thibodeau de CBC explains what it is costing.
Health PEI provided CBC News documents that show the annual salary for the medical director, if it was permanently hired through the health authority, it would be approximately $ 394,000. Add pension, CPP and IE costs takes the total to approximately $ 450,000.
That means that the provisional contract costs approximately $ 75,000 more than if it had hired that medical director directly.
Follow a deposit chain
Fraser said that Health Pei had no choice but to bring people through private employment agencies after a series of higher managers left after the report of the sentenced provincial auditor in October 2024.
That audit showed that eight senior executives received new salaries or increases without adequate approval.
“We needed to terminate or finish the contracts that were issued in an inappropriate way,” Fraser said about the outputs.
However, they left a great void of leadership in the organization.
“Because they were not approved, we canceled those contracts and in the interim, because we had no positions to hire, we sought the support of interim executives to help us maintain our important health initiatives in motion,” said Fraser.
Health Pei is also paying the expenses of accommodation and travel for some of the upper managers, all working on the island. Monthly accommodation costs vary from $ 2,500 to $ 3,900.
Travel costs vary. Some managers are not spending travel costs, while others have presented more than $ 11,000 to date on travel claims.
Opposition details call the ‘shocking’ details
The health critic of the Green Matt Macfarlane party has been trying to have these health contracts in his hands for weeks. CBC News provided a copy of these contracts to both opposition parties so that they could comment on the details.
“I was surprised and I was disappointed to see what is in these documents,” Macfarlane said.
“The Minister of Health has managed to say how off the previous CEO of Health Pei, Dr. Michael Gardam, regarding the compensation of the Health Pei leadership team
“These excessive payments were approximately $ 200,000 in all areas to the six senior leadership positions. Now, we see in these contracts that the current CEO of Health Pei, also signed by the minister, is approximately one million dollars about what these positions would be classified to receive under the ranges approved by the Public Services Commission.”
Liberal Health Critic Gord McNeilly also described the cost of these “shocking” contracts. He said he would like to see the general auditor take a look.
“It means that a large part of the money that should have gone [health] Attention goes to external agencies throughout the country, “said McNeilly.
“I don’t think that is appropriate for any of the 37,000 people in the registration of patients who do not have a family doctor.”
3 private companies involved
Health Pei hired Odgers Berndtson to provide a series of senior managers. The company has offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
Contracts, obtained by CBC News, show it hired:
- An interim financial director to work between April 21, 2025 and October 20, 2025, at a monthly cost of $ 29,500. That includes the salary of the individual plus additional costs of Odgers. If full -time work is offered to the candidate, Health Pei has to pay Odgers what is described as a “conversion rate” of $ 45,000.
- An interim human resources executive whose initial contract would be made from July 8, 2024 until March 7, 2025. Later it extended until March 6, 2026. The initial rate was $ 24,000 per month. When the contract was renewed in February, that increased to $ 26,000 per month.
- An interim medical director with a contract that has been executed from January 6, 2025 until January 5, 2026. Health Pei is paying the private company $ 43,750 per month. If you want to offer that candidate permanent work, you would have to pay a conversion rate of $ 60,000.
Health Pei also hired the KBR with Halifax headquarters to provide an interim operations officer.
That contract covered the dates on March 31, 2025 as of September 30, 2025, at a cost of $ 30,500 per month.
Kbrs also supplied Health Pei to an interim administrative director, from May 12, 2025 to November 7, 2025. That contract costs $ 23,180 per month.
Royer Thompson Management Consulting, another headquarters based in Halifax, supplied Health Pei to an interim communications director. This contract extends from April 14, 2025 to October 14, 2025, at a cost of $ 17,490 per month.
“In most cases, you pay a cousin for having someone available immediately, who has a lot of experience, generally senior, and starts in two weeks,” said Fraser.
That is not the only low -scrutiny health contract.
The agency hired KPMG last June to review six areas, including the increase in system capacity, the improvement of recruitment and the expansion of the patient’s medical homes.
Documents obtained by CBC News Show Health Pei paid KPMG little less than $ 4 million.
Other publications are still active
Meanwhile, Health Pei is still using private employment companies.
A quick search for the Odgers website shows Health Pei has publications for a Pediatrics Chief, a Medicine Chief and a Medical Director of Mental Health and Additions.
Fraser said these will be permanent, not intermediate hiring.
“We use a variety of recruitment agencies,” he said, adding that they use these companies for medical positions that are especially difficult to recruit.
‘Irregularities’ under review
Meanwhile, the province’s financial control agency is still looking for irregularities in the payroll of Health Pei.
The General Auditor Darren Noonan confirmed to CBC News that his office is investigating what Fraser described as “additional payroll irregularities” that were detected “beyond those already marked by the general auditor.”
Noonan said he cannot comment because they are still in the “half of the audit work”, but added that his office hopes to inform about the latest investigation in the fall.
Health Pei is now developing a new senior leadership team, with the appropriate approvals of the Health Pei Board, the Treasury Board and the Department of Health and Welfare. Those details will be published the week of May 26.
That is at least two months late. Fraser had promised to have the new leadership structure on April 1.
“I really don’t want to talk about the launch until I have the opportunity to talk to my staff and let them know,” Fraser told CBC News.
