Earlier this summer, the Times Colonist broke the story that Community Living B.C. executives got pay raises to cover the loss of their bonuses as ordered by Minister Stephanie Cadieux. From that story:

Senior executives at Community Living B.C. are getting pay raises to make up for a government decision last year to eliminate their performance bonuses, the Times Colonist has learned.

Social Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux confirmed Monday that the money senior managers previously earned as bonuses is simply being rolled into their base pay.

Later, Cadieux told the paper that “Honestly, I was under the impression that they were bonuses above salary and I did not truly understand that, in my naiveté, as a new minister.”

I was intrigued by how killing bonuses become a pay raise, so I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for “all briefing notes, emails, memos, etc provided by CLBC and Ministry staff to the Minister of Social Development regarding bonuses paid to Community Living BC executives for the period September 1, 2011 through June 20, 2012.”

The documents arrived this week and there are some interesting twists.

First, according to a January 25, 2012 CLBC briefing note, “The CLBC Board Governance & Human Resources Committee directed management to seek Government approval to integrate the variable pay component into salary as a first step towards establishing a comprehensive Compensation Philosophy which better acknowledged and aligned total employee reward with CLBC objectives” way back on July 27, 2011—before the issue went public, and before Cadieux ordered the bonus plan be scrapped on October 21, 2011.

The same note indicates “variable incentive pay program at CLBC had historically been applied more as an ‘entitlement’ than a ‘reward’.”

A separate briefing document for Minister Cadieux, dated Oct. 20, 2011 with updates April 4, 2012, and May 9, 2012, gives more details.

It notes the issue was first raised by the advocacy group Moms on the Move in October 2011. It says the new compensation structure came into place April 1, 2012, but wasn’t communicated publicly until June.

A June 19, 2012 memo to the Minister added that “there are 61 impacted employees. An internal note was sent to staff outlining the changes on June 19 at 7:53 am. In the next few weeks, staff will receive the pay retroactively (by early July).” CLBC claimed it couldn’t make changes mid-year, so despite Cadieux ordering the bonus program to stop in October, staff still got those bonuses.