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Fired Fraser Health CEO Victoria Lee to get $609,000 severance

Lee had been in her role for about seven years and will receive the severance over 18 months.
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Former Fraser Health CEO Victoria Lee had been in her position for about seven years before being let go in February.

Recently fired Fraser Health CEO Victoria Lee is to get $609,335 in severance over the period that started Feb. 19 and runs 18 months until Aug. 18, 2026, according to a document on the health authority's website. 

The news was first published by the Tyee earlier today. 

The health authority abruptly announced on Feb. 18 that Lee, who had been in the job for about seven years, had moved on "effective immediately." She joined Fraser Health in 2010 as a medical health officer.

Lynn Stevenson was then appointed as interim president and CEO.

Lee is listed as having a total compensation of $520,186 for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. That followed her making $453,131 in the 2023-2024 fiscal year and $447,181 in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. 

Fraser Health is B.C.'s largest health authority. 

Lee is included in this year's edition of BIV's BC500. She was also recognized with a BIV C-Suite Award in 2023 in the publicly accountable category

She worked at international organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank in the areas of health systems, policy and financing. She has also served on boards of CARE Canada and DIGITAL — Canada’s digital technology supercluster — and holds postgraduate degrees in public health and business administration from Johns Hopkins University.

Pulver Crawford Munroe LLP partner Dean Crawford, who specializes in employment law, said "18 months' salary continuance would be standard at this level of employment and in this industry."

Were Lee to have only served as CEO for six months, it might be considered high, he added. 

He said Lee's role as CEO of an organization with a $5.3-billion budget in the year ended March 2024 and in charge of about 48,000 employees underscores her importance. 

More severance for Lee would be unlikely because of her role in the public sector. 

"Employees who are dismissed by public sector employers are governed by regulations called the employment termination standards, and those standards dictate that the maximum severance that can be paid out is 18 months," he said. 

"So she's getting the maximum."

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