What Was Sevenpifer’s Severance Pay and Why Was She Let Go?

A Commentary by Doug Draper

“I go to bed every night with a clear conscience that the leaders of the Niagara Health System are trying to do the right thing to improve quality of care for all Niagarans” – from an interview former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer did with the Niagara Falls Review two years ago.

Isn’t that nice. And the rest of us are left dealing with the mess.

More than six months have passed since Debbie Sevenpifer was bounced out of her job as president and CEO of the Niagara Health System. And still the NHS has not told us how much of our money they paid her off with.

Did this individual, who was paid some $345,000 per year plus benefits, receive a six-figure severance package out of our pockets on top of that? And what were the real reasons she was let go? To continue stringing us along with lines like the organization was simply “at a crossroads” and this has “noting to do with (Sevenpifer’s) performance” is just one more instance of how little the NHS – the decade-old body established by the former Ontario Conservative government to manage most of the hospital services in Niagara – seems to care about insulting the public’s intelligence.
It is one more glaring example of a non-elected NHS board placing its own interests ahead of those of the public it is sworn to serve.

And let’s consider at least one more thing. This is a board and administration that recently declared that it wants to turn over a new leaf and be “more open and transparent” in an effort to win back the confidence of the public. Well, instead of spending tens-of-thousands of dollars of our money on spin doctors and the like – money that could be spent on more disinfectant to clean up the filth in our hospitals – why not start by coming cleaning and finally letting us know the cost of Sevenpifer’s severance package and the real reasons she was let.

Or is this another case of the NHS board placing the personal interests and privacy of a former, high-priced public servant ahead of the public’s right to know how our health-care dollars are being spent?

We might also wonder where Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews is on this? Why hasn’t she ordered the disclosure of this information?

There is a provincial election coming up this October and this should be an issue.

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