Top administrator who replaced health authority board being paid $201K
Former chair Janet Davidson picked in September by Houston government to oversee Nova Scotia Health
The Houston government will pay Janet Davidson $201,537.44 as part of a roughly yearlong contract to oversee the work of Nova Scotia Health following the shakeup in early September that saw the authority's board and CEO let go.
Davidson is the former board chair. The contract, which runs between Sept. 1, 2021, and Sept. 25, 2022, is with Janet Davidson Consulting Limited, the private company she registered in Nova Scotia in February 2021.
Davidson was the only member of the board to survive when Premier Tim Houston announced he was firing the entire board, along with health authority CEO Brendan Carr.
CBC News had been requesting details of her contract since her appointment, but the provincial government refused to provide the information until Tuesday.
Although Davidson's contract started in September, the formal agreement was signed just two weeks ago. According to that contract, Davidson is the "administrator" of Nova Scotia Health, which places her at the top of the senior management team, and she assumes "all of the powers and authority of the board."
New CEO's contract
Davidson was chair of the board until it was dissolved, at which point she was named interim administrator. Her appointment was announced at the same time that Karen Oldfield, the former Halifax Port Authority CEO and a member of Houston's transition team, was named interim CEO of the health authority. She served as the chief of staff to former Premier John Hamm from 1999 to 2002.
According to the 2021 statement of compensation, which is mandatory for any provincial body that has employees earning at least $100,000 a year, Carr, the former CEO, earned $408,062.53 for the year ending March 31, 2021.
The government released Oldfield's contract at the end of September. She's on an indefinite secondment from her post as deputy minister of priorities and planning and makes $224,000 a year.
Last Friday, Health Minister Michelle Thompson told CBC News Davidson's contract was still being finalized.
"I'm not sure exactly what the holdup was, but I do know that we expect it to be finalized in the next day or so," Thompson said.
According to the contract, Thompson signed the agreement three days prior to that statement, on Nov. 2.