Departed CEO made $603K, only worked 4 months for Manitoba Shared Health last year

The former CEO of Shared Health saw his pay exceed $600,000 last year — a nearly 83 per cent increase from the prior year — despite only working for four months before his unexpected departure from the provincial health-care organization.

Adam Topp earned $603,604 in 2023, according to recent compensation disclosures.

The same documents reveal some executives also claimed in the range of $30,000 to $60,000 in extra compensation, attributed at least partially to them collecting retroactive pay increases to match the raises of unionized health-care staff.

Topp led Shared Health for less than four months in 2023 before the organization described his departure as a "resignation" in a brief, two-sentence statement to media near the end of April. The announcement of his replacement — Lanette Siragusa, one of the public faces of Manitoba's COVID-19 response — was made the next day. 

Compared to the previous year, Topp's compensation in his final year on Shared Health's payroll grew by almost 83 per cent and was $272,865 higher in 2023 than the nearly $331,000 he had earned in 2022. His compensation in 2023 is triple the amount of Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.

The high payout suggests Topp received severance because he was fired, rather than the voluntary departure Shared Health initially suggested, according to a University of Manitoba business instructor who teaches a course on compensation.

"It would be difficult to imagine something other than they paid out the remaining term of the employment contract," Sean MacDonald said.

A Shared Health spokesperson declined to comment on Topp's employment terms, describing it as a human resources matter. 

MacDonald said large severance payments to top executives can spark public outrage, but he said these benefits are often embedded into the employment contracts.

"I don't think people should be immediately thinking that this is scandalous, simply because these are high numbers for the top executives."

MacDonald said high compensation is needed to attract upper managers, and severance protects them from the risk in assuming a job they could lose suddenly.

A union leader fighting for better wages for health-care support workers doesn't see it the same way, however. 

"That's obscene, quite frankly, compared to the two and three [per cent pay increases] that the front-line workers have received" annually, said Shannon McAteer, health-care co-ordinator for the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Manitoba.

McAteer said she understands Topp may be entitled to severance, but she's still taken aback by how high it may have been.