Well being Pei Personal Employment Businesses spend 1000’s of bucks on contracts a month
Health PEI has hired six senior managers on an interim basis through private employment agencies at a cost of $ 17,490 per month to $ 43,750 per month.
This information lies in a series of contracts in the province provided to CBC News.
These managers are filing some of the most senior roles in the health agency, including Chief Medical Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
Health PEI CEO Melani Fraser says private employment agencies provided to experienced employees on a month-by-month basis to keep the health care system running, while they worked to develop a permanent leadership team. She says that this money was spent well.
Fraser said in an interview with CBC News, “I think it is important to compare that we are paying them a month in a month. What we will pay for a salaried professional.”
“When you break it on the basis of a month of one month, it is basically the same amount we are paying for the interim person, which we were paying for the previous salaried person.”
But the number shows a significant increase in costs to use private employment firms.
For example, Health PEI is paying a private firm for its interim Chief Medical Officer.
The contract is running from January 6, 2025 to January 5, 2026, spending the Health Authority $ 43,750 per month or about $ 525,000 per year. That figure also includes salary and benefits for the individual as well as the firm’s fee.
Health PEE CEO Melani Fraser says he had no choice but to bring people to work in executive roles using private employment agencies. This is because the authority was “had to terminate or terminate contracts” for several senior managers following an Auditor General’s report last October “. Wayne Thibodo of CBC explains what its cost is.
Health PEI provided CBC news with documents showing annual salary for the Chief Medical Officer, if hired permanently through the Health Authority, there will be around $ 394,000. Adding the cost of pension, CPP and EI causes a total of $ 450,000.
This means that the cost of the interim contract is about $ 75,000 more if he hired the Chief Medical Officer directly.
Follows the string of the opposition
Fraser said that Health PEI had no option to bring people through private employment agencies following a series of senior managers following a report by Health PEI in October 2024.
The audit revealed that eight top officials were given or raised a new salary without proper approval.
“We needed to end or abolish improperly issued contracts,” Fraser said about the departure.
He left a huge leadership zero in the organization, though.
“Because they were not approving the approved posts, we canceled those contracts and in the interim – because we did not have positions to rent – we demanded the support of interim authorities, so that we could help pursue our important health initiatives,” Fraser said.
Health PEI is also paying housing and travel expenses for some senior managers, working on all islands. Monthly housing costs from $ 2,500 to $ 3,900.
Costs vary for travel. Some managers are not increasing the cost of any trip, while others have deposited more than $ 11,000 in the claims of the journey.
Opposition calling details ‘shocking’
Green party health critics Matt McFarlen have been trying to get their hands on these health contracts for weeks. CBC News provided a copy of these contracts to both opposition parties to comment on the details.
“I was surprised and disappointed to see what is in these documents,” McFarlen said.
“The Health Minister has gone to some extent to say that the executive leadership of the previous health PEI CEO, Dr. Michael Guard, Health PEI was in connection with overcamping the team.
“Those overweights were around $ 200,000 on six senior leadership positions across the board. Now, we see from the contracts that the current health PEI CEO-Nah minister also signed by the CEO-Near Minister-it is about one million dollars that will be classified to obtain these posts under the Public Service Commission-Opportunities.”
Liberal Health critic Gord McNelli also called the cost of these contracts “shocking”. He said that he wants to see the Auditor General.
“This means a large part of money that should have gone to (health) care for outside agencies across the country,” McNly said.
“I don’t think the patient is perfect for any of the 37,000 people on the registry, which does not have a family doctors.”
3 private firms include
Health Pei hired Odors Bernadson to supply with a series of senior managers. The company has offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
The contracts obtained by CBC News, showing that it is hired:
- An interim Chief Financial Officer to work at a monthly cost of $ 29,500 between April 21, 2025 and 20 October 2025. This includes individual plus additional cost salary from Odors. If the candidate is offered a full -time job, the health PEI has to pay the Odors described as a “conversion fee” of $ 45,000.
- An interim human resource executive whose initial contract lasted from 8 July 2024 to March 7, 2025. It was later extended to March 6, 2026. The initial rate was $ 24,000 per month. When the contract was renewed in February, it increased to $ 26,000 per month.
- An interim Chief Medical Officer with a contract running from 6 January 2025 to January 5, 2026. Health PEI is paying $ 43,750 per month to private firm. If it wants to offer a permanent job to that candidate, he will have to pay a conversion fee of $ 60,000.
Health PEI also hired Halifax-based KBRs to supply with an interim Chief Operating Officer.
The contract covered the dates on 31 March 2025, on 31 March, 2025 at a cost of $ 30,500 per month.
KBRS supplied the health PEI with an interim Chief Administrative Officer from May 12, 2025 to November 7, 2025. This contract spends $ 23,180 per month.
Rayar Thompson Management Consulting, another Halifax-based employment agency, supplied the health PEI with an interim Chief Communication Officer. The contract runs from April 14, 2025 to October 14, 2025, at a cost of $ 17,490 per month.
“In most cases, you pay a premium for someone who is immediately available, which is extremely experienced, usually senior, and kills the ground running within two weeks,” Fraser said.
This is not the only health PEI contract under investigation.
The agency hired KPMG to review six areas in June last, including increasing system capacity, improvement in recruitment, and expansion of patient medical homes.
The health PEI paid KPMG under only $ 4 million from the documents received by CBC News.
Other postings are still above
Meanwhile, health PEI is still using private employment firms.
A quick discovery of the website of Odgers shows that Health PEI has posting for a medical director of the drug, the leading drug and a medical director of mental health and additions.
Fraser said that they will be on permanent rent, not interim.
“We use a variety of recruitment agencies,” he said, saying that they use these firms for medical positions that are particularly difficult for recruitment.
‘Irregularities’ under review
Meanwhile, the province’s financial sentinel is still looking at irregularities in the health of the health Pei.
Auditor General Darren Nunnan confirmed CBC News that his office is investigating that Fraser described “additional parole irregularities” that was detected by “already flagged people”.
Nunnan said he could not comment as he is still “in the midst of the audit work” but said that his office has expected to report on the latest investigation in the fall.
Health PEI is now developing a new senior leadership team, which has proper approval from the Board of Health PEI, Treasury Board and Health and Welfare Department. Those details will be released in the week of 26 May.
It is at least two months behind the schedule. Fraser promised the new leadership structure on 1 April.
Fraser told CBC News, “I really don’t want to talk more about the rollout, until I had the opportunity to talk to my employees and they can be told.”
