Is being the CEO of a British Columbia health authority a part time job? Or do taxpayers expect that person to dedicate their full attention to one role, in exchange for the measly salary of $350,000 a year?
It’s an interesting question that has emerged after news this week that the BC Greens and NDP have launched a sweeping review of the primary-care health system and community health centres, led by Dr. Penny Ballem.
Ballem, you might remember, was appointed by the NDP government not two months ago to be interim CEO of the Provincial Health Services Authority. She was given what seemed like the enormous job of reviewing the leadership and structure of an organization that includes the BC Children’s Hospital, BC Cancer, the BC Ambulance Service, the BC Centre for Disease Control and more.
Thousands of employees. More than $5 billion in annual spending. Orders to crack it all open, review how it’s working and report back a new structure with efficiencies.
It was billed as a full-time gig, and came with a full-time salary of $350,000. Even Minister of Health Josie Osborne thought it was a job worth Ballem’s complete attention, when asked during her ministry estimates.
“I’m grateful to Dr. Ballem for having accepted the position as an interim CEO,” she told the legislature.
“That is just what she will be. Again, I know that she will be wholly focused on the work at hand: undertaking the review.”
Apparently not, though. Because instead of “wholly focused” on PHSA, Ballem has now also resumed her previous duties as “special advisor to the minister of health” back in Osborne’s office.
Opposition Conservatives had already raised conflict concerns about Ballem, including questions about why she was tapped at enormous public expense to review a health system the NDP have also paid her $1.4 million in consulting fees over the last four years to help design.
But it was widely thought all the other contract work would stop when Ballem was sent to PHSA, given the sheer scope of the job, the tight timeline to find savings and the potential conflicts of interest.
Instead, Ballem is now helping Osborne and the Greens run a working group that is undertaking such jobs as “assessing all elements of B.C.’s primary care system” and “establishing targets for the opening of new publicly funded CHCs [community health centres].”
The group is tasked with an initial report by this summer that sets priorities and funding models, plus a final report in the fall that “will address the barriers that exist for health professionals and communities that want to establish CHCs and establish data-driven processes for identifying priority communities for CHC expansion in 2026.”
As part of that, the group Ballem is helping to lead has to “engage with targeted stakeholders” such as doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, other health authorities, and more. Perhaps at one point she’ll put her PHSA CEO hat back on and even consult herself.
It all sounds like a lot of work. Some might even consider it a full or part-time job.
The NDP government is keenly aware of the rising cost of deploying Ballem, both in terms of literal dollars during a hiring freeze, and also in political capital. Perhaps that’s why her latest foray back into her special advisor role only comes with a $1 per year honorarium.
But pay is only part of the issue.
The larger question is: Why didn't the health minister just hire someone else to help the Greens?
Was there really no one in the entire British Columbia health-care system who could do the job of researching community health centres other than the PHSA CEO who is already in the middle of the largest internal review in that organization’s history?
And how come every time the government needs something done in health care—including a review of ER closures, work on mental health and addictions, and identifying efficiencies in a health authority—it keeps hiring the same one person?
Perhaps the answer should be framed within the debate that seized NDP MLAs in the final days of the legislative session, as the governing party pushed forward a law to force two Conservative MLAs to quit their jobs on a local council and school board.
“British Columbians deserve confidence that their elected officials are fully committed to the roles that they have chosen to fulfil,” said NDP MLA Darlene Rotchford, who introduced the bill.
“They deserve assurance that MLAs are not collecting two separate taxpayer-funded salaries, that there are no conflicts of interest and that those elected to serve at the provincial level are dedicating 100 per cent of their time and energy to addressing the pressing issues facing our province.”
New Democrats mocked and belittled the two Conservatives for days in the house, arguing that if they want to be in public life, earning public funds, they should dedicate themselves to their single job without distractions, side gigs or conflicting responsibilities.
“Being an MLA is not a part-time job,” said Rotchford.
Perhaps neither should being a health authority CEO.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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