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http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... -conflicts
Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
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Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
^ And that all had to do with aviation how? If you wish to discuss provincial politics, then feel free to visit rabble.ca or Freedominion.ca, or any one of a host of different sites...
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Mazza wanted me to ‘tame’ him, claims ORNGE exec in lawsuit
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... in-lawsuit
A former ORNGE executive claims she was bullied and sexually harassed by founder Dr. Chris Mazza and was concerned the air ambulance firm was a “potential criminal enterprise.”
In a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, ORNGE’s former government relations director Lisa Kirbie takes direct aim at Mazza, calling him everything from misogynist to racist to sexist.
And Kirbie describes the controversial multi-million dollar payment by an Italian helicopter firm to Mazza’s for-profit company as a “kickback.” She said two ORNGE executives told her the “AgustaWestland fraud” is the “tip of the iceberg” and that people would “go to jail” if it was discovered.
She also said she was told by the executives, whom she did not name, that former ORNGE lawyer Alf Apps was the “mastermind” of the scheme.
None of Kirbie’s allegations have been tested in court. She is only suing ORNGE, but makes allegations against others. Mazza’s lawyer has denied all allegations.
“Dr. Mazza is certainly not a ‘racist’ or ‘misogynist.’ These allegations are without merit and entirely false, as are the bullying and sexual harassment allegations (by) Ms. Kirbie,” Roger Yachetti, Mazza’s lawyer, said in an emailed response to the Star. Yachetti suggested that Kirbie has a “vendetta” against Apps and Mazza for personal reasons.
Lawyer Apps, no longer associated with ORNGE, also hotly denied allegations made against him, saying he was just a lawyer, not a mastermind. “I deny the truth of the allegations flatly,” Apps said.
ORNGE is Ontario’s $150-million-a-year air ambulance system, founded by Mazza in 2005 in what the former emergency-room doctor says was an attempt to streamline a fractured system and save lives.
A Star investigation found that ORNGE went off the rails, becoming an organization with bloated salaries, nepotism, executive perks and a series of pie-in-the-sky business plans that cost a lot and provided no return to taxpayers. Along the way, safety was compromised — helicopter ambulances were too often grounded. When they did fly, the expensive, state-of-the-art “hospital in the sky” was so jammed with equipment a medic could not perform CPR.
According to her statement of claim, filed in court last week, Kirbie said she was hired by ORNGE in 2010 and immediately smelled problems.
One day, she claims, Mazza took her aside and said she had to learn how to “tame” him, just as she had done her partner, Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella. Kirbie said Mazza had told her how “women like older men.”
“(If you) can tame that lion, you can tame this one,” Mazza said, according to Kirbie.
Dumped by ORNGE last July, Kirbie is asking for about $300,000, made up of one year’s salary, damages and benefits covering a 20-month period. An ORNGE spokesperson said Tuesday that Kirbie was offered a “reasonable termination package” but she refused it.
“ORNGE does not dispute that Ms. Kirbie is owed compensation for termination,” said spokesman Stephen Patterson, ORNGE’s new general counsel. He said ORNGE is disputing the amount and will issue a statement of defence in the next few weeks. As to the allegations made, Patterson said he could not comment as they predate the current leadership of ORNGE.
Kirbie had an annual salary of $143,924 in her final year. She said earlier in her time at ORNGE she learned a male subordinate was paid more than her and she complained. ORNGE agreed to increase her salary so that it would be slightly more than the subordinate.
In her pleadings, Kirbie said ORNGE hired her to handle contacts with the provincial government, promoting the agency and also providing advice on legislation that affected the air ambulance service. Kirbie said she reported directly to Mazza and, from the outset, it was a difficult experience.
“Immediately it was apparent that Mazza was incredibly demanding, volatile, had unreasonable expectations and was a racist and misogynist,” Kirbie said in her claim. On the racism allegation, Kirbie said Mazza went on a “racist tirade about aboriginal Canadians,” people ORNGE air ambulances often transport from the north to the south for medical procedures.
Kirbie claims that Mazza constantly looked at her in a “sexual way,” stared at her breasts and legs, and treated her like an “object rather than a qualified professional.” According to Kirbie, Mazza made comments about other ORNGE women, including one unnamed employee who Mazza said, with Kirbie present, was “a beautiful girl with a beautiful body.”
On another occasion, she said Mazza told her: “Let’s face it, you’re an attractive woman.”
Kirbie claims she was continually providing information to the province’s auditor general that “ORNGE was refusing to divulge” and encouraged other executives to do the same. She said she twigged to Mazza’s $1.4-million salary by the early summer of 2011 and was told by others to keep the information quiet. Eventually, Kirbie said, she began recording conversations at ORNGE and in 2012 provided information to Ontario Provincial Police detectives who had been called in to investigate.
Kirbie’s suit describes her mounting frustration that lawyer Alf Apps, then with Fasken Martineau, was doing the government relations work that she was hired to do.
Apps, in several responses to the Star, has said he never did government relations work, but did help ORNGE brief top government officials on a series of plans for for-profit companies and money-making strategies. The provincial integrity commissioner has ruled that Apps should have registered as a lobbyist regarding his contacts with government. That’s a ruling Apps disagrees with.
In one section of Kirbie’s claim, she says executives told her Apps was the “mastermind” of a scheme that saw ORNGE overpay Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, so that money (about $4.7 million, with another $2 million promised) could flow back to a Mazza company. The OPP is investigating the deal.
“Lisa had no evidence at all to substantiate anything these two executives told her. However, she was obviously very concerned that she had come to work for a company that was a potential criminal enterprise,” her lawyer, Brian Shiller, writes in the claim. Shiller told the Star Kirbie was not available for an interview on the case.
In his response to the Star, Apps said he was “nowhere near any AgustaWestland meetings, negotiations or documentation.” An AgustaWestland executive, in testimony at Queen’s Park earlier this year, said the firm did nothing wrong.
Mazza, through his lawyer, said he believes there is acrimony between Kirbie and Apps tracing back to work both did for the federal Liberals in Ottawa. Kirbie worked for former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Apps was until early this year the president of the federal Liberal Party.
“It is now also becoming more and more evident that this ‘scandal’ has been manufactured and orchestrated by Ms. Kirbie for personal reasons. There is no scandal, just a vendetta that Ms. Kirbie holds against Mr. Apps and Dr. Mazza,” lawyer Yachetti writes.
A former ORNGE executive claims she was bullied and sexually harassed by founder Dr. Chris Mazza and was concerned the air ambulance firm was a “potential criminal enterprise.”
In a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, ORNGE’s former government relations director Lisa Kirbie takes direct aim at Mazza, calling him everything from misogynist to racist to sexist.
And Kirbie describes the controversial multi-million dollar payment by an Italian helicopter firm to Mazza’s for-profit company as a “kickback.” She said two ORNGE executives told her the “AgustaWestland fraud” is the “tip of the iceberg” and that people would “go to jail” if it was discovered.
She also said she was told by the executives, whom she did not name, that former ORNGE lawyer Alf Apps was the “mastermind” of the scheme.
None of Kirbie’s allegations have been tested in court. She is only suing ORNGE, but makes allegations against others. Mazza’s lawyer has denied all allegations.
“Dr. Mazza is certainly not a ‘racist’ or ‘misogynist.’ These allegations are without merit and entirely false, as are the bullying and sexual harassment allegations (by) Ms. Kirbie,” Roger Yachetti, Mazza’s lawyer, said in an emailed response to the Star. Yachetti suggested that Kirbie has a “vendetta” against Apps and Mazza for personal reasons.
Lawyer Apps, no longer associated with ORNGE, also hotly denied allegations made against him, saying he was just a lawyer, not a mastermind. “I deny the truth of the allegations flatly,” Apps said.
ORNGE is Ontario’s $150-million-a-year air ambulance system, founded by Mazza in 2005 in what the former emergency-room doctor says was an attempt to streamline a fractured system and save lives.
A Star investigation found that ORNGE went off the rails, becoming an organization with bloated salaries, nepotism, executive perks and a series of pie-in-the-sky business plans that cost a lot and provided no return to taxpayers. Along the way, safety was compromised — helicopter ambulances were too often grounded. When they did fly, the expensive, state-of-the-art “hospital in the sky” was so jammed with equipment a medic could not perform CPR.
According to her statement of claim, filed in court last week, Kirbie said she was hired by ORNGE in 2010 and immediately smelled problems.
One day, she claims, Mazza took her aside and said she had to learn how to “tame” him, just as she had done her partner, Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella. Kirbie said Mazza had told her how “women like older men.”
“(If you) can tame that lion, you can tame this one,” Mazza said, according to Kirbie.
Dumped by ORNGE last July, Kirbie is asking for about $300,000, made up of one year’s salary, damages and benefits covering a 20-month period. An ORNGE spokesperson said Tuesday that Kirbie was offered a “reasonable termination package” but she refused it.
“ORNGE does not dispute that Ms. Kirbie is owed compensation for termination,” said spokesman Stephen Patterson, ORNGE’s new general counsel. He said ORNGE is disputing the amount and will issue a statement of defence in the next few weeks. As to the allegations made, Patterson said he could not comment as they predate the current leadership of ORNGE.
Kirbie had an annual salary of $143,924 in her final year. She said earlier in her time at ORNGE she learned a male subordinate was paid more than her and she complained. ORNGE agreed to increase her salary so that it would be slightly more than the subordinate.
In her pleadings, Kirbie said ORNGE hired her to handle contacts with the provincial government, promoting the agency and also providing advice on legislation that affected the air ambulance service. Kirbie said she reported directly to Mazza and, from the outset, it was a difficult experience.
“Immediately it was apparent that Mazza was incredibly demanding, volatile, had unreasonable expectations and was a racist and misogynist,” Kirbie said in her claim. On the racism allegation, Kirbie said Mazza went on a “racist tirade about aboriginal Canadians,” people ORNGE air ambulances often transport from the north to the south for medical procedures.
Kirbie claims that Mazza constantly looked at her in a “sexual way,” stared at her breasts and legs, and treated her like an “object rather than a qualified professional.” According to Kirbie, Mazza made comments about other ORNGE women, including one unnamed employee who Mazza said, with Kirbie present, was “a beautiful girl with a beautiful body.”
On another occasion, she said Mazza told her: “Let’s face it, you’re an attractive woman.”
Kirbie claims she was continually providing information to the province’s auditor general that “ORNGE was refusing to divulge” and encouraged other executives to do the same. She said she twigged to Mazza’s $1.4-million salary by the early summer of 2011 and was told by others to keep the information quiet. Eventually, Kirbie said, she began recording conversations at ORNGE and in 2012 provided information to Ontario Provincial Police detectives who had been called in to investigate.
Kirbie’s suit describes her mounting frustration that lawyer Alf Apps, then with Fasken Martineau, was doing the government relations work that she was hired to do.
Apps, in several responses to the Star, has said he never did government relations work, but did help ORNGE brief top government officials on a series of plans for for-profit companies and money-making strategies. The provincial integrity commissioner has ruled that Apps should have registered as a lobbyist regarding his contacts with government. That’s a ruling Apps disagrees with.
In one section of Kirbie’s claim, she says executives told her Apps was the “mastermind” of a scheme that saw ORNGE overpay Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, so that money (about $4.7 million, with another $2 million promised) could flow back to a Mazza company. The OPP is investigating the deal.
“Lisa had no evidence at all to substantiate anything these two executives told her. However, she was obviously very concerned that she had come to work for a company that was a potential criminal enterprise,” her lawyer, Brian Shiller, writes in the claim. Shiller told the Star Kirbie was not available for an interview on the case.
In his response to the Star, Apps said he was “nowhere near any AgustaWestland meetings, negotiations or documentation.” An AgustaWestland executive, in testimony at Queen’s Park earlier this year, said the firm did nothing wrong.
Mazza, through his lawyer, said he believes there is acrimony between Kirbie and Apps tracing back to work both did for the federal Liberals in Ottawa. Kirbie worked for former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Apps was until early this year the president of the federal Liberal Party.
“It is now also becoming more and more evident that this ‘scandal’ has been manufactured and orchestrated by Ms. Kirbie for personal reasons. There is no scandal, just a vendetta that Ms. Kirbie holds against Mr. Apps and Dr. Mazza,” lawyer Yachetti writes.
A former ORNGE executive claims she was bullied and sexually harassed by founder Dr. Chris Mazza and was concerned the air ambulance firm was a “potential criminal enterprise.”
In a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, ORNGE’s former government relations director Lisa Kirbie takes direct aim at Mazza, calling him everything from misogynist to racist to sexist.
And Kirbie describes the controversial multi-million dollar payment by an Italian helicopter firm to Mazza’s for-profit company as a “kickback.” She said two ORNGE executives told her the “AgustaWestland fraud” is the “tip of the iceberg” and that people would “go to jail” if it was discovered.
She also said she was told by the executives, whom she did not name, that former ORNGE lawyer Alf Apps was the “mastermind” of the scheme.
None of Kirbie’s allegations have been tested in court. She is only suing ORNGE, but makes allegations against others. Mazza’s lawyer has denied all allegations.
“Dr. Mazza is certainly not a ‘racist’ or ‘misogynist.’ These allegations are without merit and entirely false, as are the bullying and sexual harassment allegations (by) Ms. Kirbie,” Roger Yachetti, Mazza’s lawyer, said in an emailed response to the Star. Yachetti suggested that Kirbie has a “vendetta” against Apps and Mazza for personal reasons.
Lawyer Apps, no longer associated with ORNGE, also hotly denied allegations made against him, saying he was just a lawyer, not a mastermind. “I deny the truth of the allegations flatly,” Apps said.
ORNGE is Ontario’s $150-million-a-year air ambulance system, founded by Mazza in 2005 in what the former emergency-room doctor says was an attempt to streamline a fractured system and save lives.
A Star investigation found that ORNGE went off the rails, becoming an organization with bloated salaries, nepotism, executive perks and a series of pie-in-the-sky business plans that cost a lot and provided no return to taxpayers. Along the way, safety was compromised — helicopter ambulances were too often grounded. When they did fly, the expensive, state-of-the-art “hospital in the sky” was so jammed with equipment a medic could not perform CPR.
According to her statement of claim, filed in court last week, Kirbie said she was hired by ORNGE in 2010 and immediately smelled problems.
One day, she claims, Mazza took her aside and said she had to learn how to “tame” him, just as she had done her partner, Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella. Kirbie said Mazza had told her how “women like older men.”
“(If you) can tame that lion, you can tame this one,” Mazza said, according to Kirbie.
Dumped by ORNGE last July, Kirbie is asking for about $300,000, made up of one year’s salary, damages and benefits covering a 20-month period. An ORNGE spokesperson said Tuesday that Kirbie was offered a “reasonable termination package” but she refused it.
“ORNGE does not dispute that Ms. Kirbie is owed compensation for termination,” said spokesman Stephen Patterson, ORNGE’s new general counsel. He said ORNGE is disputing the amount and will issue a statement of defence in the next few weeks. As to the allegations made, Patterson said he could not comment as they predate the current leadership of ORNGE.
Kirbie had an annual salary of $143,924 in her final year. She said earlier in her time at ORNGE she learned a male subordinate was paid more than her and she complained. ORNGE agreed to increase her salary so that it would be slightly more than the subordinate.
In her pleadings, Kirbie said ORNGE hired her to handle contacts with the provincial government, promoting the agency and also providing advice on legislation that affected the air ambulance service. Kirbie said she reported directly to Mazza and, from the outset, it was a difficult experience.
“Immediately it was apparent that Mazza was incredibly demanding, volatile, had unreasonable expectations and was a racist and misogynist,” Kirbie said in her claim. On the racism allegation, Kirbie said Mazza went on a “racist tirade about aboriginal Canadians,” people ORNGE air ambulances often transport from the north to the south for medical procedures.
Kirbie claims that Mazza constantly looked at her in a “sexual way,” stared at her breasts and legs, and treated her like an “object rather than a qualified professional.” According to Kirbie, Mazza made comments about other ORNGE women, including one unnamed employee who Mazza said, with Kirbie present, was “a beautiful girl with a beautiful body.”
On another occasion, she said Mazza told her: “Let’s face it, you’re an attractive woman.”
Kirbie claims she was continually providing information to the province’s auditor general that “ORNGE was refusing to divulge” and encouraged other executives to do the same. She said she twigged to Mazza’s $1.4-million salary by the early summer of 2011 and was told by others to keep the information quiet. Eventually, Kirbie said, she began recording conversations at ORNGE and in 2012 provided information to Ontario Provincial Police detectives who had been called in to investigate.
Kirbie’s suit describes her mounting frustration that lawyer Alf Apps, then with Fasken Martineau, was doing the government relations work that she was hired to do.
Apps, in several responses to the Star, has said he never did government relations work, but did help ORNGE brief top government officials on a series of plans for for-profit companies and money-making strategies. The provincial integrity commissioner has ruled that Apps should have registered as a lobbyist regarding his contacts with government. That’s a ruling Apps disagrees with.
In one section of Kirbie’s claim, she says executives told her Apps was the “mastermind” of a scheme that saw ORNGE overpay Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, so that money (about $4.7 million, with another $2 million promised) could flow back to a Mazza company. The OPP is investigating the deal.
“Lisa had no evidence at all to substantiate anything these two executives told her. However, she was obviously very concerned that she had come to work for a company that was a potential criminal enterprise,” her lawyer, Brian Shiller, writes in the claim. Shiller told the Star Kirbie was not available for an interview on the case.
In his response to the Star, Apps said he was “nowhere near any AgustaWestland meetings, negotiations or documentation.” An AgustaWestland executive, in testimony at Queen’s Park earlier this year, said the firm did nothing wrong.
Mazza, through his lawyer, said he believes there is acrimony between Kirbie and Apps tracing back to work both did for the federal Liberals in Ottawa. Kirbie worked for former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Apps was until early this year the president of the federal Liberal Party.
“It is now also becoming more and more evident that this ‘scandal’ has been manufactured and orchestrated by Ms. Kirbie for personal reasons. There is no scandal, just a vendetta that Ms. Kirbie holds against Mr. Apps and Dr. Mazza,” lawyer Yachetti writes.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... in-lawsuit
A former ORNGE executive claims she was bullied and sexually harassed by founder Dr. Chris Mazza and was concerned the air ambulance firm was a “potential criminal enterprise.”
In a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, ORNGE’s former government relations director Lisa Kirbie takes direct aim at Mazza, calling him everything from misogynist to racist to sexist.
And Kirbie describes the controversial multi-million dollar payment by an Italian helicopter firm to Mazza’s for-profit company as a “kickback.” She said two ORNGE executives told her the “AgustaWestland fraud” is the “tip of the iceberg” and that people would “go to jail” if it was discovered.
She also said she was told by the executives, whom she did not name, that former ORNGE lawyer Alf Apps was the “mastermind” of the scheme.
None of Kirbie’s allegations have been tested in court. She is only suing ORNGE, but makes allegations against others. Mazza’s lawyer has denied all allegations.
“Dr. Mazza is certainly not a ‘racist’ or ‘misogynist.’ These allegations are without merit and entirely false, as are the bullying and sexual harassment allegations (by) Ms. Kirbie,” Roger Yachetti, Mazza’s lawyer, said in an emailed response to the Star. Yachetti suggested that Kirbie has a “vendetta” against Apps and Mazza for personal reasons.
Lawyer Apps, no longer associated with ORNGE, also hotly denied allegations made against him, saying he was just a lawyer, not a mastermind. “I deny the truth of the allegations flatly,” Apps said.
ORNGE is Ontario’s $150-million-a-year air ambulance system, founded by Mazza in 2005 in what the former emergency-room doctor says was an attempt to streamline a fractured system and save lives.
A Star investigation found that ORNGE went off the rails, becoming an organization with bloated salaries, nepotism, executive perks and a series of pie-in-the-sky business plans that cost a lot and provided no return to taxpayers. Along the way, safety was compromised — helicopter ambulances were too often grounded. When they did fly, the expensive, state-of-the-art “hospital in the sky” was so jammed with equipment a medic could not perform CPR.
According to her statement of claim, filed in court last week, Kirbie said she was hired by ORNGE in 2010 and immediately smelled problems.
One day, she claims, Mazza took her aside and said she had to learn how to “tame” him, just as she had done her partner, Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella. Kirbie said Mazza had told her how “women like older men.”
“(If you) can tame that lion, you can tame this one,” Mazza said, according to Kirbie.
Dumped by ORNGE last July, Kirbie is asking for about $300,000, made up of one year’s salary, damages and benefits covering a 20-month period. An ORNGE spokesperson said Tuesday that Kirbie was offered a “reasonable termination package” but she refused it.
“ORNGE does not dispute that Ms. Kirbie is owed compensation for termination,” said spokesman Stephen Patterson, ORNGE’s new general counsel. He said ORNGE is disputing the amount and will issue a statement of defence in the next few weeks. As to the allegations made, Patterson said he could not comment as they predate the current leadership of ORNGE.
Kirbie had an annual salary of $143,924 in her final year. She said earlier in her time at ORNGE she learned a male subordinate was paid more than her and she complained. ORNGE agreed to increase her salary so that it would be slightly more than the subordinate.
In her pleadings, Kirbie said ORNGE hired her to handle contacts with the provincial government, promoting the agency and also providing advice on legislation that affected the air ambulance service. Kirbie said she reported directly to Mazza and, from the outset, it was a difficult experience.
“Immediately it was apparent that Mazza was incredibly demanding, volatile, had unreasonable expectations and was a racist and misogynist,” Kirbie said in her claim. On the racism allegation, Kirbie said Mazza went on a “racist tirade about aboriginal Canadians,” people ORNGE air ambulances often transport from the north to the south for medical procedures.
Kirbie claims that Mazza constantly looked at her in a “sexual way,” stared at her breasts and legs, and treated her like an “object rather than a qualified professional.” According to Kirbie, Mazza made comments about other ORNGE women, including one unnamed employee who Mazza said, with Kirbie present, was “a beautiful girl with a beautiful body.”
On another occasion, she said Mazza told her: “Let’s face it, you’re an attractive woman.”
Kirbie claims she was continually providing information to the province’s auditor general that “ORNGE was refusing to divulge” and encouraged other executives to do the same. She said she twigged to Mazza’s $1.4-million salary by the early summer of 2011 and was told by others to keep the information quiet. Eventually, Kirbie said, she began recording conversations at ORNGE and in 2012 provided information to Ontario Provincial Police detectives who had been called in to investigate.
Kirbie’s suit describes her mounting frustration that lawyer Alf Apps, then with Fasken Martineau, was doing the government relations work that she was hired to do.
Apps, in several responses to the Star, has said he never did government relations work, but did help ORNGE brief top government officials on a series of plans for for-profit companies and money-making strategies. The provincial integrity commissioner has ruled that Apps should have registered as a lobbyist regarding his contacts with government. That’s a ruling Apps disagrees with.
In one section of Kirbie’s claim, she says executives told her Apps was the “mastermind” of a scheme that saw ORNGE overpay Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, so that money (about $4.7 million, with another $2 million promised) could flow back to a Mazza company. The OPP is investigating the deal.
“Lisa had no evidence at all to substantiate anything these two executives told her. However, she was obviously very concerned that she had come to work for a company that was a potential criminal enterprise,” her lawyer, Brian Shiller, writes in the claim. Shiller told the Star Kirbie was not available for an interview on the case.
In his response to the Star, Apps said he was “nowhere near any AgustaWestland meetings, negotiations or documentation.” An AgustaWestland executive, in testimony at Queen’s Park earlier this year, said the firm did nothing wrong.
Mazza, through his lawyer, said he believes there is acrimony between Kirbie and Apps tracing back to work both did for the federal Liberals in Ottawa. Kirbie worked for former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Apps was until early this year the president of the federal Liberal Party.
“It is now also becoming more and more evident that this ‘scandal’ has been manufactured and orchestrated by Ms. Kirbie for personal reasons. There is no scandal, just a vendetta that Ms. Kirbie holds against Mr. Apps and Dr. Mazza,” lawyer Yachetti writes.
A former ORNGE executive claims she was bullied and sexually harassed by founder Dr. Chris Mazza and was concerned the air ambulance firm was a “potential criminal enterprise.”
In a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, ORNGE’s former government relations director Lisa Kirbie takes direct aim at Mazza, calling him everything from misogynist to racist to sexist.
And Kirbie describes the controversial multi-million dollar payment by an Italian helicopter firm to Mazza’s for-profit company as a “kickback.” She said two ORNGE executives told her the “AgustaWestland fraud” is the “tip of the iceberg” and that people would “go to jail” if it was discovered.
She also said she was told by the executives, whom she did not name, that former ORNGE lawyer Alf Apps was the “mastermind” of the scheme.
None of Kirbie’s allegations have been tested in court. She is only suing ORNGE, but makes allegations against others. Mazza’s lawyer has denied all allegations.
“Dr. Mazza is certainly not a ‘racist’ or ‘misogynist.’ These allegations are without merit and entirely false, as are the bullying and sexual harassment allegations (by) Ms. Kirbie,” Roger Yachetti, Mazza’s lawyer, said in an emailed response to the Star. Yachetti suggested that Kirbie has a “vendetta” against Apps and Mazza for personal reasons.
Lawyer Apps, no longer associated with ORNGE, also hotly denied allegations made against him, saying he was just a lawyer, not a mastermind. “I deny the truth of the allegations flatly,” Apps said.
ORNGE is Ontario’s $150-million-a-year air ambulance system, founded by Mazza in 2005 in what the former emergency-room doctor says was an attempt to streamline a fractured system and save lives.
A Star investigation found that ORNGE went off the rails, becoming an organization with bloated salaries, nepotism, executive perks and a series of pie-in-the-sky business plans that cost a lot and provided no return to taxpayers. Along the way, safety was compromised — helicopter ambulances were too often grounded. When they did fly, the expensive, state-of-the-art “hospital in the sky” was so jammed with equipment a medic could not perform CPR.
According to her statement of claim, filed in court last week, Kirbie said she was hired by ORNGE in 2010 and immediately smelled problems.
One day, she claims, Mazza took her aside and said she had to learn how to “tame” him, just as she had done her partner, Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella. Kirbie said Mazza had told her how “women like older men.”
“(If you) can tame that lion, you can tame this one,” Mazza said, according to Kirbie.
Dumped by ORNGE last July, Kirbie is asking for about $300,000, made up of one year’s salary, damages and benefits covering a 20-month period. An ORNGE spokesperson said Tuesday that Kirbie was offered a “reasonable termination package” but she refused it.
“ORNGE does not dispute that Ms. Kirbie is owed compensation for termination,” said spokesman Stephen Patterson, ORNGE’s new general counsel. He said ORNGE is disputing the amount and will issue a statement of defence in the next few weeks. As to the allegations made, Patterson said he could not comment as they predate the current leadership of ORNGE.
Kirbie had an annual salary of $143,924 in her final year. She said earlier in her time at ORNGE she learned a male subordinate was paid more than her and she complained. ORNGE agreed to increase her salary so that it would be slightly more than the subordinate.
In her pleadings, Kirbie said ORNGE hired her to handle contacts with the provincial government, promoting the agency and also providing advice on legislation that affected the air ambulance service. Kirbie said she reported directly to Mazza and, from the outset, it was a difficult experience.
“Immediately it was apparent that Mazza was incredibly demanding, volatile, had unreasonable expectations and was a racist and misogynist,” Kirbie said in her claim. On the racism allegation, Kirbie said Mazza went on a “racist tirade about aboriginal Canadians,” people ORNGE air ambulances often transport from the north to the south for medical procedures.
Kirbie claims that Mazza constantly looked at her in a “sexual way,” stared at her breasts and legs, and treated her like an “object rather than a qualified professional.” According to Kirbie, Mazza made comments about other ORNGE women, including one unnamed employee who Mazza said, with Kirbie present, was “a beautiful girl with a beautiful body.”
On another occasion, she said Mazza told her: “Let’s face it, you’re an attractive woman.”
Kirbie claims she was continually providing information to the province’s auditor general that “ORNGE was refusing to divulge” and encouraged other executives to do the same. She said she twigged to Mazza’s $1.4-million salary by the early summer of 2011 and was told by others to keep the information quiet. Eventually, Kirbie said, she began recording conversations at ORNGE and in 2012 provided information to Ontario Provincial Police detectives who had been called in to investigate.
Kirbie’s suit describes her mounting frustration that lawyer Alf Apps, then with Fasken Martineau, was doing the government relations work that she was hired to do.
Apps, in several responses to the Star, has said he never did government relations work, but did help ORNGE brief top government officials on a series of plans for for-profit companies and money-making strategies. The provincial integrity commissioner has ruled that Apps should have registered as a lobbyist regarding his contacts with government. That’s a ruling Apps disagrees with.
In one section of Kirbie’s claim, she says executives told her Apps was the “mastermind” of a scheme that saw ORNGE overpay Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, so that money (about $4.7 million, with another $2 million promised) could flow back to a Mazza company. The OPP is investigating the deal.
“Lisa had no evidence at all to substantiate anything these two executives told her. However, she was obviously very concerned that she had come to work for a company that was a potential criminal enterprise,” her lawyer, Brian Shiller, writes in the claim. Shiller told the Star Kirbie was not available for an interview on the case.
In his response to the Star, Apps said he was “nowhere near any AgustaWestland meetings, negotiations or documentation.” An AgustaWestland executive, in testimony at Queen’s Park earlier this year, said the firm did nothing wrong.
Mazza, through his lawyer, said he believes there is acrimony between Kirbie and Apps tracing back to work both did for the federal Liberals in Ottawa. Kirbie worked for former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Apps was until early this year the president of the federal Liberal Party.
“It is now also becoming more and more evident that this ‘scandal’ has been manufactured and orchestrated by Ms. Kirbie for personal reasons. There is no scandal, just a vendetta that Ms. Kirbie holds against Mr. Apps and Dr. Mazza,” lawyer Yachetti writes.
A former ORNGE executive claims she was bullied and sexually harassed by founder Dr. Chris Mazza and was concerned the air ambulance firm was a “potential criminal enterprise.”
In a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, ORNGE’s former government relations director Lisa Kirbie takes direct aim at Mazza, calling him everything from misogynist to racist to sexist.
And Kirbie describes the controversial multi-million dollar payment by an Italian helicopter firm to Mazza’s for-profit company as a “kickback.” She said two ORNGE executives told her the “AgustaWestland fraud” is the “tip of the iceberg” and that people would “go to jail” if it was discovered.
She also said she was told by the executives, whom she did not name, that former ORNGE lawyer Alf Apps was the “mastermind” of the scheme.
None of Kirbie’s allegations have been tested in court. She is only suing ORNGE, but makes allegations against others. Mazza’s lawyer has denied all allegations.
“Dr. Mazza is certainly not a ‘racist’ or ‘misogynist.’ These allegations are without merit and entirely false, as are the bullying and sexual harassment allegations (by) Ms. Kirbie,” Roger Yachetti, Mazza’s lawyer, said in an emailed response to the Star. Yachetti suggested that Kirbie has a “vendetta” against Apps and Mazza for personal reasons.
Lawyer Apps, no longer associated with ORNGE, also hotly denied allegations made against him, saying he was just a lawyer, not a mastermind. “I deny the truth of the allegations flatly,” Apps said.
ORNGE is Ontario’s $150-million-a-year air ambulance system, founded by Mazza in 2005 in what the former emergency-room doctor says was an attempt to streamline a fractured system and save lives.
A Star investigation found that ORNGE went off the rails, becoming an organization with bloated salaries, nepotism, executive perks and a series of pie-in-the-sky business plans that cost a lot and provided no return to taxpayers. Along the way, safety was compromised — helicopter ambulances were too often grounded. When they did fly, the expensive, state-of-the-art “hospital in the sky” was so jammed with equipment a medic could not perform CPR.
According to her statement of claim, filed in court last week, Kirbie said she was hired by ORNGE in 2010 and immediately smelled problems.
One day, she claims, Mazza took her aside and said she had to learn how to “tame” him, just as she had done her partner, Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella. Kirbie said Mazza had told her how “women like older men.”
“(If you) can tame that lion, you can tame this one,” Mazza said, according to Kirbie.
Dumped by ORNGE last July, Kirbie is asking for about $300,000, made up of one year’s salary, damages and benefits covering a 20-month period. An ORNGE spokesperson said Tuesday that Kirbie was offered a “reasonable termination package” but she refused it.
“ORNGE does not dispute that Ms. Kirbie is owed compensation for termination,” said spokesman Stephen Patterson, ORNGE’s new general counsel. He said ORNGE is disputing the amount and will issue a statement of defence in the next few weeks. As to the allegations made, Patterson said he could not comment as they predate the current leadership of ORNGE.
Kirbie had an annual salary of $143,924 in her final year. She said earlier in her time at ORNGE she learned a male subordinate was paid more than her and she complained. ORNGE agreed to increase her salary so that it would be slightly more than the subordinate.
In her pleadings, Kirbie said ORNGE hired her to handle contacts with the provincial government, promoting the agency and also providing advice on legislation that affected the air ambulance service. Kirbie said she reported directly to Mazza and, from the outset, it was a difficult experience.
“Immediately it was apparent that Mazza was incredibly demanding, volatile, had unreasonable expectations and was a racist and misogynist,” Kirbie said in her claim. On the racism allegation, Kirbie said Mazza went on a “racist tirade about aboriginal Canadians,” people ORNGE air ambulances often transport from the north to the south for medical procedures.
Kirbie claims that Mazza constantly looked at her in a “sexual way,” stared at her breasts and legs, and treated her like an “object rather than a qualified professional.” According to Kirbie, Mazza made comments about other ORNGE women, including one unnamed employee who Mazza said, with Kirbie present, was “a beautiful girl with a beautiful body.”
On another occasion, she said Mazza told her: “Let’s face it, you’re an attractive woman.”
Kirbie claims she was continually providing information to the province’s auditor general that “ORNGE was refusing to divulge” and encouraged other executives to do the same. She said she twigged to Mazza’s $1.4-million salary by the early summer of 2011 and was told by others to keep the information quiet. Eventually, Kirbie said, she began recording conversations at ORNGE and in 2012 provided information to Ontario Provincial Police detectives who had been called in to investigate.
Kirbie’s suit describes her mounting frustration that lawyer Alf Apps, then with Fasken Martineau, was doing the government relations work that she was hired to do.
Apps, in several responses to the Star, has said he never did government relations work, but did help ORNGE brief top government officials on a series of plans for for-profit companies and money-making strategies. The provincial integrity commissioner has ruled that Apps should have registered as a lobbyist regarding his contacts with government. That’s a ruling Apps disagrees with.
In one section of Kirbie’s claim, she says executives told her Apps was the “mastermind” of a scheme that saw ORNGE overpay Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, so that money (about $4.7 million, with another $2 million promised) could flow back to a Mazza company. The OPP is investigating the deal.
“Lisa had no evidence at all to substantiate anything these two executives told her. However, she was obviously very concerned that she had come to work for a company that was a potential criminal enterprise,” her lawyer, Brian Shiller, writes in the claim. Shiller told the Star Kirbie was not available for an interview on the case.
In his response to the Star, Apps said he was “nowhere near any AgustaWestland meetings, negotiations or documentation.” An AgustaWestland executive, in testimony at Queen’s Park earlier this year, said the firm did nothing wrong.
Mazza, through his lawyer, said he believes there is acrimony between Kirbie and Apps tracing back to work both did for the federal Liberals in Ottawa. Kirbie worked for former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Apps was until early this year the president of the federal Liberal Party.
“It is now also becoming more and more evident that this ‘scandal’ has been manufactured and orchestrated by Ms. Kirbie for personal reasons. There is no scandal, just a vendetta that Ms. Kirbie holds against Mr. Apps and Dr. Mazza,” lawyer Yachetti writes.
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Star Investigation on ORNGE EBook
ORNGE, by Kevin Donovan, is a gripping narrative account of the Star investigation that broke the story. It is available in electronic form for free download on Friday, Nov. 9 at stardispatches.com.
ORNGE, by Kevin Donovan, is a gripping narrative account of the Star investigation that broke the story. It is available in electronic form for free download on Friday, Nov. 9 at stardispatches.com.
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Toronto Star Live Chat.
Kevin is hosting a live chat Tuesday, Nov. 13th at noon on thestar.com to talk about how the investigation came together. Click here to submit your question now, and come back to thestar.com Tuesday at noon for the live session.
http://www.thestar.com/stardispatches/a ... -the-story
Kevin is hosting a live chat Tuesday, Nov. 13th at noon on thestar.com to talk about how the investigation came together. Click here to submit your question now, and come back to thestar.com Tuesday at noon for the live session.
http://www.thestar.com/stardispatches/a ... -the-story
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pilotidentity
- Rank 3
- Posts: 175
- Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:00 am
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Geeze, reading that you can't help but feel sorry for the guy. Looks like everyone was out to get him and he was just trying to do his best. He didn't even get to ride in the speed boat.
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
I guess we're not allowed to look at a women's legs in the workplace anymore 
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FlyingFinn
- Rank 2
- Posts: 50
- Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:18 am
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
First Class Chris
This guy is just as bad as Bev Oda
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... 4-for-nuts
This guy is just as bad as Bev Oda
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... 4-for-nuts
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
This guy stole more in a week from taxpayers than Bev Oda did in a year!FlyingFinn wrote:First Class Chris
This guy is just as bad as Bev Oda
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... 4-for-nuts
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Conquest Driver
- Rank 6
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:57 pm
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
This guy makes Bev Oda look like Shirley Temple.
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orngecrush
- Rank 1
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:18 pm
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
WHAT WAS PUPATELLO’S ROLE IN ORNGE?
QUEEN”S PARK – Despite her insistence that she was not involved in the scandals that ran rampant in the McGuinty government, Liberal leadership hopeful Sandra Pupatello needs to clarify her involvement with AgustaWestland, the company that sold Ornge 12 AW139 helicopters and is alleged to have paid a $6.7 million kickback as part of that deal, said PC Transportation Critic Frank Klees.
“Between 2010 and 2011, Ms. Pupatello met with AgustaWestland executives on three occasions,” Klees said. “Ontario taxpayers deserve to know what Pupatello’s involvement was in the Ornge deal, if she knew anything about the structure of the financial arrangements, and at the very least – given the revelations about Chris Mazza’s expenses associated with his Ornge-related excursions – she should disclose her expenses related to those trips.”
Klees made the comments following revelations about the exorbitant expenses incurred by the former Ornge CEO Chris Mazza during his visits to AgustaWestland’s facilities in Italy – the same facilities visited by Pupatello. “Something doesn’t sit right with me – how does a cabinet minister meet three times with a company that has done a $144 million deal with an agency of the Ontario government and claim to know nothing about the deal?
“These were tax dollars and a high-profile transaction. How can you not insist on a detailed briefing of the deal?”
Klees questioned if Pupatello was briefed about the allegations of bribes and kickbacks to an Italian political party by Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland’s parent company. Ironically, those allegations related to the sale of helicopters to Panama in 2010. The company is also under investigation for alleged kickbacks in a 2010 deal that involved the sale of 12 helicopters to India.
“Anyone with access to the Internet would know that AgustaWestland and its parent company were being investigated for possible criminal conduct,” said Klees. “Was it incompetence on the part of her ministry for not doing the necessary due diligence on these companies or was it just poor judgment on her part?”
“We think Ontario taxpayers deserve to know what went on during those meetings between Sandra Pupatello and AgustaWestland, who was present at those meetings, who paid for what during those visits and what those trips cost Ontario taxpayers,” said Klees.
Klees concluded, “For the past three months, the Liberals have shut down the Legislature and put the province on pause to escape scandal and to put their Party’s interests ahead of Ontarians.
“Pupatello needs to commit to bringing the House back on February 19th and to re-launch the Public Accounts study of the Ornge scandal immediately.
QUEEN”S PARK – Despite her insistence that she was not involved in the scandals that ran rampant in the McGuinty government, Liberal leadership hopeful Sandra Pupatello needs to clarify her involvement with AgustaWestland, the company that sold Ornge 12 AW139 helicopters and is alleged to have paid a $6.7 million kickback as part of that deal, said PC Transportation Critic Frank Klees.
“Between 2010 and 2011, Ms. Pupatello met with AgustaWestland executives on three occasions,” Klees said. “Ontario taxpayers deserve to know what Pupatello’s involvement was in the Ornge deal, if she knew anything about the structure of the financial arrangements, and at the very least – given the revelations about Chris Mazza’s expenses associated with his Ornge-related excursions – she should disclose her expenses related to those trips.”
Klees made the comments following revelations about the exorbitant expenses incurred by the former Ornge CEO Chris Mazza during his visits to AgustaWestland’s facilities in Italy – the same facilities visited by Pupatello. “Something doesn’t sit right with me – how does a cabinet minister meet three times with a company that has done a $144 million deal with an agency of the Ontario government and claim to know nothing about the deal?
“These were tax dollars and a high-profile transaction. How can you not insist on a detailed briefing of the deal?”
Klees questioned if Pupatello was briefed about the allegations of bribes and kickbacks to an Italian political party by Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland’s parent company. Ironically, those allegations related to the sale of helicopters to Panama in 2010. The company is also under investigation for alleged kickbacks in a 2010 deal that involved the sale of 12 helicopters to India.
“Anyone with access to the Internet would know that AgustaWestland and its parent company were being investigated for possible criminal conduct,” said Klees. “Was it incompetence on the part of her ministry for not doing the necessary due diligence on these companies or was it just poor judgment on her part?”
“We think Ontario taxpayers deserve to know what went on during those meetings between Sandra Pupatello and AgustaWestland, who was present at those meetings, who paid for what during those visits and what those trips cost Ontario taxpayers,” said Klees.
Klees concluded, “For the past three months, the Liberals have shut down the Legislature and put the province on pause to escape scandal and to put their Party’s interests ahead of Ontarians.
“Pupatello needs to commit to bringing the House back on February 19th and to re-launch the Public Accounts study of the Ornge scandal immediately.
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orngecrush
- Rank 1
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:18 pm
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
TORONTO STAR JAN 23 2013
'Board' approved payments; 3 ORNGE execs signed off on five-star hotels, ski trips, other lavish expenses rung up by founder Chris Mazza
Beltzner. Renzella. Beecher.
Those are the three former ORNGE officials who approved the payments that funded Dr. Chris Mazza's lavish lifestyle.
Rainer Beltzner was the chairman of the board, which oversaw the provincial air ambulance service. ORNGE records show Beltzner and his board signed off on the rapid $1.2-million increase in payments to Mazza in his last year at the service.
In the expense category, vice-presidents Maria Renzella and Rhoda Beecher signed the documents that reimbursed former president Mazza for his many trips to five-star hotels, ski jaunts and boozy dinners. ORNGE records show Mazza's expenses were then presented to the "board," which reviewed them.
When Mazza's expense records and some of his salary and loan payments were released Friday, it allowed the Star to determine whose signatures approved so many questionable payments at a time when most parts of Ontario's health-care system were in full austerity mode.
The Star reached out to the three former ORNGE officials for an explanation. Beltzner said he was "disappointed to read of some of the appalling expenses reported to have been claimed by Dr. Mazza" and was looking forward to the results of the OPP investigation. He acknowledged his board of directors made certain approvals, did not comment on his own signature approving payments, and said he did not know who at the board would have reviewed the expenses.
Neither Renzella or Beecher were available to be interviewed. Both testified at the ORNGE hearings last year, along with Beltzner, but since the expenses were not known then, MPPs did not raise the issue. The now infamous banker's box of documents was sent to the committee by ORNGE but Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's proroguing of the legislature halted its release.
ORNGE, which is under new management, has brought in a series of strict rules to prevent further problems. All expenses are now disclosed (with caps on the amount that can be spent for lunch, dinner, etc.), salaries are published, and the new board has members experienced in corporate governance.
Previously, from 2005 to 2011, the records show a free-for-all, whirlwind of spending. Trips were taken to Brazil, Milan, Germany, Switzerland and New York and Big Sky, Mont., in the United States. Fine hotels were booked and everything from fizzy water to avalanche ski training to lots of food and booze were expensed. The hotel bill at one resort, the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was $6,000.
The ORNGE records show an executive assistant prepared the expense records, Mazza signed and submitted them, and Renzella and Beecher usually approved them. Over the years, a handful of other executives provided the second signature to Renzella's.
If an expense report was approved by the executives in, for example, December, it was tabled at a board meeting a month or two later. Those records were then reviewed by the board. The handwriting on those records says "board," but does not reveal who signed them.
Renzella, a chartered accountant, was paid $434,000 in salary and benefits at ORNGE, and received an all-expenses-paid executive MBA which included a study stint in Belgium. It is not clear how much Beecher, who was on contract and not an employee, was paid. At the Queen's Park committee, estimates of her annual payments ranged between $300,000 and $500,000. An experienced human resources professional, Beecher was tasked with putting out fires created by her tempestuous boss (Mazza). She referred to the ORNGE founder as HRH - His Royal Highness.
In Beecher's testimony, she said that by 2011, ORNGE was in trouble financially. "There was a real sense of crisis around finances for ORNGE," Beecher testified. "We were told to turn the lights down, we were told to reuse."
In Renzella's testimony, she said she was aware of Mazza's $1.4 million salary. "The salary was determined by the board of directors, and the position I held was to ensure that the payroll matched the salary that was approved."
Beltzner, paid $200,000 annually to chair the board, told the Star he wanted to point out it was the provincial government that "selected and appointed Mazza." As to Mazza's expenses, he said they "would have been reviewed in detail and approved by another senior executive, typically Maria Renzella."
The records reveal that in Mazza's last year at ORNGE, Beltzner and Renzella signed off on a $500,000 housing loan to Mazza, a $450,000 loan (both also board approved) and the board also approved a $250,000 advance against a future bonus to Mazza. A handwritten notation by Renzella says, "Rainer had approved an advance to Chris."
'Board' approved payments; 3 ORNGE execs signed off on five-star hotels, ski trips, other lavish expenses rung up by founder Chris Mazza
Beltzner. Renzella. Beecher.
Those are the three former ORNGE officials who approved the payments that funded Dr. Chris Mazza's lavish lifestyle.
Rainer Beltzner was the chairman of the board, which oversaw the provincial air ambulance service. ORNGE records show Beltzner and his board signed off on the rapid $1.2-million increase in payments to Mazza in his last year at the service.
In the expense category, vice-presidents Maria Renzella and Rhoda Beecher signed the documents that reimbursed former president Mazza for his many trips to five-star hotels, ski jaunts and boozy dinners. ORNGE records show Mazza's expenses were then presented to the "board," which reviewed them.
When Mazza's expense records and some of his salary and loan payments were released Friday, it allowed the Star to determine whose signatures approved so many questionable payments at a time when most parts of Ontario's health-care system were in full austerity mode.
The Star reached out to the three former ORNGE officials for an explanation. Beltzner said he was "disappointed to read of some of the appalling expenses reported to have been claimed by Dr. Mazza" and was looking forward to the results of the OPP investigation. He acknowledged his board of directors made certain approvals, did not comment on his own signature approving payments, and said he did not know who at the board would have reviewed the expenses.
Neither Renzella or Beecher were available to be interviewed. Both testified at the ORNGE hearings last year, along with Beltzner, but since the expenses were not known then, MPPs did not raise the issue. The now infamous banker's box of documents was sent to the committee by ORNGE but Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's proroguing of the legislature halted its release.
ORNGE, which is under new management, has brought in a series of strict rules to prevent further problems. All expenses are now disclosed (with caps on the amount that can be spent for lunch, dinner, etc.), salaries are published, and the new board has members experienced in corporate governance.
Previously, from 2005 to 2011, the records show a free-for-all, whirlwind of spending. Trips were taken to Brazil, Milan, Germany, Switzerland and New York and Big Sky, Mont., in the United States. Fine hotels were booked and everything from fizzy water to avalanche ski training to lots of food and booze were expensed. The hotel bill at one resort, the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was $6,000.
The ORNGE records show an executive assistant prepared the expense records, Mazza signed and submitted them, and Renzella and Beecher usually approved them. Over the years, a handful of other executives provided the second signature to Renzella's.
If an expense report was approved by the executives in, for example, December, it was tabled at a board meeting a month or two later. Those records were then reviewed by the board. The handwriting on those records says "board," but does not reveal who signed them.
Renzella, a chartered accountant, was paid $434,000 in salary and benefits at ORNGE, and received an all-expenses-paid executive MBA which included a study stint in Belgium. It is not clear how much Beecher, who was on contract and not an employee, was paid. At the Queen's Park committee, estimates of her annual payments ranged between $300,000 and $500,000. An experienced human resources professional, Beecher was tasked with putting out fires created by her tempestuous boss (Mazza). She referred to the ORNGE founder as HRH - His Royal Highness.
In Beecher's testimony, she said that by 2011, ORNGE was in trouble financially. "There was a real sense of crisis around finances for ORNGE," Beecher testified. "We were told to turn the lights down, we were told to reuse."
In Renzella's testimony, she said she was aware of Mazza's $1.4 million salary. "The salary was determined by the board of directors, and the position I held was to ensure that the payroll matched the salary that was approved."
Beltzner, paid $200,000 annually to chair the board, told the Star he wanted to point out it was the provincial government that "selected and appointed Mazza." As to Mazza's expenses, he said they "would have been reviewed in detail and approved by another senior executive, typically Maria Renzella."
The records reveal that in Mazza's last year at ORNGE, Beltzner and Renzella signed off on a $500,000 housing loan to Mazza, a $450,000 loan (both also board approved) and the board also approved a $250,000 advance against a future bonus to Mazza. A handwritten notation by Renzella says, "Rainer had approved an advance to Chris."
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Chris Mazza of ORNGE got $4.6 million in two years
Salary, bonuses and housing loans add up to much higher figure than previously thought.
Chris Mazza, former head of ORNGE
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Sat Feb 09 2013
Dr. Chris Mazza received a hefty $4.6 million in public dollars in his last two years at ORNGE — a lot more than previously known.
That amount includes salary and bonus of $1.9 million in his last year as president; $1.5 million in salary and bonus the year before; a $250,000 cash advance against a future bonus; and two housing loans totalling $950,000.
Mazza’s $1.9-million earnings in 2011 make him the highest paid publicly funded official in Ontario that year, $100,000 ahead of Tom Mitchell, the president of Ontario Power Generation.
MORE FROM THESTAR.COM
Previously, Mazza’s maximum annual salary was thought to be $1.4 million.
The Star has confirmed this new information from sources with knowledge of sealed records sent by ORNGE to Queen’s Park. Ten pages of records containing the salary details were blacked out by the province when it made his expense and some other payment records public.
Mazza founded ORNGE in 2005, and was the president and chief executive officer of the provincial air ambulance service until he went on medical leave in late 2011 and ultimately lost his job the next month.
Here’s the breakdown of Mazza’s salary.
In 2010, Mazza was paid $1.5 million, composed of $1.1 million in salary and a $410,973 “stipend” for being a medical director at ORNGE. The now adjourned investigating committee at Queen’s Park was told by former ORNGE chairman Rainer Beltzner that Mazza may not have been performing the services of medical director.
In 2011, Mazza was paid a total of $1.9 million, made up of $1.6 million in salary to be president of both the non-profit ORNGE and a series of for-profit ORNGE companies, plus a medical director stipend of $304,992.
Mazza’s two-year total was $3.4 million. However, in those two years he also received a $250,000 cash advance on a future bonus he was to be paid for securing investors. No investors were ever secured. He also received two housing loans totalling $950,000, used to purchase and rebuild an Etobicoke home. Records show that in 2011 Mazza made six loan payments, totalling $7,500.
Before 2010, it appears Mazza’s annual earnings were roughly $600,000 to $800,000. That was made up of a medical stipend, plus his salary and bonus. The last time Mazza’s name was on the provincial Sunshine List was 2007, when his salary was listed as $298,000. It appears that was just his CEO/president salary. Records show that he was also paid a $331,000 medical director stipend that year.
In addition to these payments, Mazza may have received money to do some sort of work for Mount Sinai hospital, which is investigating. Mazza also claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses, including two ski trips described as “continuing medical education.”
Health Minister Deb Matthews said the information the Star obtained “begs questions similar to those that have arisen already about Chris Mazza’s tenure and the adequacy of the oversight provided by the previous board of directors.” Matthews said the “former ORNGE regime avoided transparency, and demonstrated a true lack of regard for both patients and taxpayers.”
Former board chair Beltzner said: “I trust the OPP is looking into these payments as well and will have the more complete access to information to get to the bottom of this.”
Matthews said the police investigation is continuing. OPP Det. Tim Tichnor said he could not talk to the Star to “remain impartial and avoid any conflict of interest.”
Salary, bonuses and housing loans add up to much higher figure than previously thought.
Chris Mazza, former head of ORNGE
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Sat Feb 09 2013
Dr. Chris Mazza received a hefty $4.6 million in public dollars in his last two years at ORNGE — a lot more than previously known.
That amount includes salary and bonus of $1.9 million in his last year as president; $1.5 million in salary and bonus the year before; a $250,000 cash advance against a future bonus; and two housing loans totalling $950,000.
Mazza’s $1.9-million earnings in 2011 make him the highest paid publicly funded official in Ontario that year, $100,000 ahead of Tom Mitchell, the president of Ontario Power Generation.
MORE FROM THESTAR.COM
Previously, Mazza’s maximum annual salary was thought to be $1.4 million.
The Star has confirmed this new information from sources with knowledge of sealed records sent by ORNGE to Queen’s Park. Ten pages of records containing the salary details were blacked out by the province when it made his expense and some other payment records public.
Mazza founded ORNGE in 2005, and was the president and chief executive officer of the provincial air ambulance service until he went on medical leave in late 2011 and ultimately lost his job the next month.
Here’s the breakdown of Mazza’s salary.
In 2010, Mazza was paid $1.5 million, composed of $1.1 million in salary and a $410,973 “stipend” for being a medical director at ORNGE. The now adjourned investigating committee at Queen’s Park was told by former ORNGE chairman Rainer Beltzner that Mazza may not have been performing the services of medical director.
In 2011, Mazza was paid a total of $1.9 million, made up of $1.6 million in salary to be president of both the non-profit ORNGE and a series of for-profit ORNGE companies, plus a medical director stipend of $304,992.
Mazza’s two-year total was $3.4 million. However, in those two years he also received a $250,000 cash advance on a future bonus he was to be paid for securing investors. No investors were ever secured. He also received two housing loans totalling $950,000, used to purchase and rebuild an Etobicoke home. Records show that in 2011 Mazza made six loan payments, totalling $7,500.
Before 2010, it appears Mazza’s annual earnings were roughly $600,000 to $800,000. That was made up of a medical stipend, plus his salary and bonus. The last time Mazza’s name was on the provincial Sunshine List was 2007, when his salary was listed as $298,000. It appears that was just his CEO/president salary. Records show that he was also paid a $331,000 medical director stipend that year.
In addition to these payments, Mazza may have received money to do some sort of work for Mount Sinai hospital, which is investigating. Mazza also claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses, including two ski trips described as “continuing medical education.”
Health Minister Deb Matthews said the information the Star obtained “begs questions similar to those that have arisen already about Chris Mazza’s tenure and the adequacy of the oversight provided by the previous board of directors.” Matthews said the “former ORNGE regime avoided transparency, and demonstrated a true lack of regard for both patients and taxpayers.”
Former board chair Beltzner said: “I trust the OPP is looking into these payments as well and will have the more complete access to information to get to the bottom of this.”
Matthews said the police investigation is continuing. OPP Det. Tim Tichnor said he could not talk to the Star to “remain impartial and avoid any conflict of interest.”
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YYZSaabGuy
- Rank 8
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Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Just...wow: the lady has more gall than a canal horse. Pot, meet kettle.ipilot54 wrote:Health Minister Deb Matthews said the information the Star obtained “begs questions similar to those that have arisen already about Chris Mazza’s tenure and the adequacy of the oversight provided by the previous board of directors.” Matthews said the “former ORNGE regime avoided transparency, and demonstrated a true lack of regard for both patients and taxpayers.”
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Helicopter executives with ties to ORNGE arrested in India bribery scheme
Two Italian helicopter executives who dealt with Ontario's ORNGE air ambulance deal are facing bribery allegations involving a chopper deal in India.
Finmeccanica Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Orsi poses for photographers during a convention in Rome in this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo. Italian police on Feb. 12 arrested Orsi in a corruption probe centred on the sale of helicopters to the Indian government.
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Tue Feb 12 2013
Two Italian helicopter executives who dealt with Ontario's ORNGE air ambulance deal are facing bribery allegations overseas involving a chopper deal in India.
Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolni were top executives with AgustaWestland during the time period of both the deal for 12 helicopters in India, and in Ontario. Spagnoli is still with Agusta, while Orsi is the chairman and chief executive officer of parent company Finmeccanica.
In a brief statement today, Finmeccanica “expresses support” for Orsi and Spagnolni. The statement does not specifically reference the allegations, but said that the company hopes “clarity is established quickly, whilst reaffirming its confidence in the judges.”
The judges referred to are investigating magistrates in Italy who have, for more than a year, been conducting a probe into the Indian helicopter deal.
Reuters and media in India have reported that kickbacks of about $740,000 were allegedly paid to government officials in India who were overseeing the helicopter deal.
Agusta has denied any wrongdoing and stated today that the arrests and search of Agusta's Italian offices will not affect the business operations of the company.
In Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police are one year into an investigation of various issues related to ORNGE air ambulance. One line of investigation the police are probing relates to a payment of $4.8 million to a for-profit company controlled by founder Chris Mazza’s company after the non-profit ORNGE purchased 12 helicopters for a cost of $144 million. Mazza has denied any wrongdoing.
Two Italian helicopter executives who dealt with Ontario's ORNGE air ambulance deal are facing bribery allegations involving a chopper deal in India.
Finmeccanica Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Orsi poses for photographers during a convention in Rome in this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo. Italian police on Feb. 12 arrested Orsi in a corruption probe centred on the sale of helicopters to the Indian government.
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Tue Feb 12 2013
Two Italian helicopter executives who dealt with Ontario's ORNGE air ambulance deal are facing bribery allegations overseas involving a chopper deal in India.
Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolni were top executives with AgustaWestland during the time period of both the deal for 12 helicopters in India, and in Ontario. Spagnoli is still with Agusta, while Orsi is the chairman and chief executive officer of parent company Finmeccanica.
In a brief statement today, Finmeccanica “expresses support” for Orsi and Spagnolni. The statement does not specifically reference the allegations, but said that the company hopes “clarity is established quickly, whilst reaffirming its confidence in the judges.”
The judges referred to are investigating magistrates in Italy who have, for more than a year, been conducting a probe into the Indian helicopter deal.
Reuters and media in India have reported that kickbacks of about $740,000 were allegedly paid to government officials in India who were overseeing the helicopter deal.
Agusta has denied any wrongdoing and stated today that the arrests and search of Agusta's Italian offices will not affect the business operations of the company.
In Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police are one year into an investigation of various issues related to ORNGE air ambulance. One line of investigation the police are probing relates to a payment of $4.8 million to a for-profit company controlled by founder Chris Mazza’s company after the non-profit ORNGE purchased 12 helicopters for a cost of $144 million. Mazza has denied any wrongdoing.
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Colonel Sanders
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Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
How nostalgic. You will recall that Airbus paid $500,000 perkickbacks of about $740,000 were allegedly paid to government officials in India who were overseeing the helicopter deal
airframe in kickbacks to Canadian politicians for the Air Canada
purchase.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_affair
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Mazza shared fine dinners, finer wines, with AgustaWestland execs arrested in Italy
ORNGE founder ‘shocked’ to hear of allegations of bribery against top executives of helicopter company in India deal
Back in the day: ORNGE founder Chris Mazza, from left, and AgustaWestland's Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini. The two top executives of the AgustaWestland helicopter company were Mazza's guests here in 2010 to celebrate ORNGE’s purchase of 12 helicopters to use as air ambulances.
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Wed Feb 13 2013
Giuseppe Orsi stayed in the Milan room of the Thunder Bay hotel. Bruno Spagnolini had the Athens room.
The two top executives of Italy’s AgustaWestland helicopter company were the guests of ORNGE founder Chris Mazza at one of several events in Ontario in 2010 to celebrate ORNGE’s purchase of 12 helicopters to use as air ambulances.
Along the way, in what was a close relationship between Mazza and Agusta boss Orsi, there were fine dinners, finer wines, and a trip to La Scala opera house in Milan. The Thunder Bay rooms where Mazza played host were just $140 a night, paid by ORNGE. Mazza’s room in the European-themed White Fox Inn was “Elise.”
Photos View gallery
While she was minister of economic development and on a trade mission to Italy in 2011, Sandra Pupatello visited the Agusta plant with some of its staff to discuss the possibility of Agusta locating a facility in Ontario.
Orsi and Spagnolini were arrested Tuesday in Italy, facing bribery allegations in connection with a deal to sell 12 military choppers to the Indian government. A spokesman for their parent company said the company fully supports the two executives and hopes “clarity is established quickly, whilst reaffirming its confidence in the judges.” No charges have been laid.
The judges referred to are investigating magistrates in Italy who have, for more than a year, been conducting a probe into the Indian helicopter deal.
According to Reuters, which has viewed case documents in Italy, Italian prosecutors authorized the arrests to prevent further wrongdoing.
“AgustaWestland and its management seem to be used to paying bribes and we have reason to believe that such a corporate philosophy could be repeated in the future if not stopped through an arrest,” Italian judge Luca Labianca wrote in the warrant, reviewed by Reuters.
In Toronto, Mazza was “shocked” to hear of the Agusta allegations in Italy, according to a person close to Mazza and girlfriend Kelly Long. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, further said Mazza “was never offered and would never have accepted anything from anybody.”
Reuters and media in India have reported that kickbacks of about $740,000 were allegedly paid by Agusta to government officials in India to secure the helicopter deal, which was signed in 2010, two years after the ORNGE deal was signed. Indian authorities announced today that they are beginning an investigation in light of the Italian allegations.
In Ontario, provincial police detectives are continuing an investigation into ORNGE. One area of inquiry is a $4.8-million payment Agusta made to Mazza’s for-profit company after the non-profit ORNGE paid $144 million of taxpayer money to purchase 12 air ambulance choppers.
The $4.8-million payment was for a “marketing services agreement” and ORNGE officials, including Long, were to develop plans to help sell Agusta choppers in other medical markets. The Star’s research shows very little work was done for the $4.8 million. It is not known if Italian authorities are probing the Ontario deal.
At the time of the ORNGE deal, Orsi was the chief executive officer of AgustaWestland. Spagnolini was the chief operating officer. Spagnolini has since taken over Orsi’s job at Agusta, while Orsi is chairman of parent company Finmeccanica. Neither has been charged, but both were detained Tuesday and offices and houses in Italy have been searched.
Mazza’s recently released expenses show numerous occasions when he entertained Agusta officials in Toronto and, in one case, Thunder Bay. There are several expensive dinners at public expense. One at Via Allegro near Sherway Gardens simply states “Agusta” as guests. Cocktails, steaks and a $279 bottle of wine (the name of the wine is blurred in the expense report and unreadable) totalled $1,334. That was in 2007, the year before ORNGE chose AgustaWestland to supply helicopters.
When that deal was done, in 2008, the final negotiations took place at the offices of AgustaWestland, in a small town a two-hour drive from Milan. ORNGE had asked for expressions of interest from Agusta and two other helicopter companies, all specifying a chopper that had de-icing capability. Only Agusta had this design (the de-icing has not been used by ORNGE), and the deal was inked when Mazza and several other ORNGE officials flew over. One ORNGE executive on the trip recalls negotiations to hammer out the deal took place without Mazza and Orsi, who left for two days. Those in attendance were told the two top executives were on a boat.
Just as ORNGE, through Mazza, paid for Toronto dinners and the hotel rooms in Thunder Bay, it appears that Agusta covered the expenses of Mazza, other ORNGE officials and chairman Rainer Beltzner on trips to Italy. In a reply to questions Tuesday, Beltzner confirmed that he took one trip to Italy with Mazza to check out the manufacturing process and Agusta paid for his ground transportation and “arranged” his hotel and some meals. “I don’t know who paid,” said Beltzner. “I didn’t.”
Beltzner said that while in Italy he conducted a “review of Agusta flight and assembly operations, training academy, and parts management information systems.” He said he also had a “business meeting and lunch with Giuseppe Orsi.”
While Mazza’s expenses show ORNGE paid for his airfare on several trips to Italy, there is no record of payments for his hotel or other expenses.
On one trip that he took to Italy, with girlfriend Kelly Long in 2011, Mazza and Long attended the world-renowned La Scala opera house in Milan as the guest of Agusta. Long wore a $3,000 dress purchased by Mazza, according to a person close to him.
Mazza, who was paid $4.6 million in salary, bonus and loans by ORNGE in 2010-11, was not the only Ontario official to visit the Agusta plant in Italy. While she was minister of economic development and on a trade mission to Italy, Sandra Pupatello took a two-hour road trip to the Agusta plant in 2011 to discuss the possibility of Agusta locating a facility in Ontario.
In an interview, Pupatello said she and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan also attended a Mazza-organized dinner in Yorkville with Agusta officials prior to the September 2010 launch of the Agusta-ORNGE program. “All we knew was that Agusta had won a bid with the Ontario government to supply helicopters,” Pupatello said.
Kevin Donovan can be reached at 416-312-3503 or kdonovan@thestar.ca .
ORNGE founder ‘shocked’ to hear of allegations of bribery against top executives of helicopter company in India deal
Back in the day: ORNGE founder Chris Mazza, from left, and AgustaWestland's Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini. The two top executives of the AgustaWestland helicopter company were Mazza's guests here in 2010 to celebrate ORNGE’s purchase of 12 helicopters to use as air ambulances.
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Wed Feb 13 2013
Giuseppe Orsi stayed in the Milan room of the Thunder Bay hotel. Bruno Spagnolini had the Athens room.
The two top executives of Italy’s AgustaWestland helicopter company were the guests of ORNGE founder Chris Mazza at one of several events in Ontario in 2010 to celebrate ORNGE’s purchase of 12 helicopters to use as air ambulances.
Along the way, in what was a close relationship between Mazza and Agusta boss Orsi, there were fine dinners, finer wines, and a trip to La Scala opera house in Milan. The Thunder Bay rooms where Mazza played host were just $140 a night, paid by ORNGE. Mazza’s room in the European-themed White Fox Inn was “Elise.”
Photos View gallery
While she was minister of economic development and on a trade mission to Italy in 2011, Sandra Pupatello visited the Agusta plant with some of its staff to discuss the possibility of Agusta locating a facility in Ontario.
Orsi and Spagnolini were arrested Tuesday in Italy, facing bribery allegations in connection with a deal to sell 12 military choppers to the Indian government. A spokesman for their parent company said the company fully supports the two executives and hopes “clarity is established quickly, whilst reaffirming its confidence in the judges.” No charges have been laid.
The judges referred to are investigating magistrates in Italy who have, for more than a year, been conducting a probe into the Indian helicopter deal.
According to Reuters, which has viewed case documents in Italy, Italian prosecutors authorized the arrests to prevent further wrongdoing.
“AgustaWestland and its management seem to be used to paying bribes and we have reason to believe that such a corporate philosophy could be repeated in the future if not stopped through an arrest,” Italian judge Luca Labianca wrote in the warrant, reviewed by Reuters.
In Toronto, Mazza was “shocked” to hear of the Agusta allegations in Italy, according to a person close to Mazza and girlfriend Kelly Long. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, further said Mazza “was never offered and would never have accepted anything from anybody.”
Reuters and media in India have reported that kickbacks of about $740,000 were allegedly paid by Agusta to government officials in India to secure the helicopter deal, which was signed in 2010, two years after the ORNGE deal was signed. Indian authorities announced today that they are beginning an investigation in light of the Italian allegations.
In Ontario, provincial police detectives are continuing an investigation into ORNGE. One area of inquiry is a $4.8-million payment Agusta made to Mazza’s for-profit company after the non-profit ORNGE paid $144 million of taxpayer money to purchase 12 air ambulance choppers.
The $4.8-million payment was for a “marketing services agreement” and ORNGE officials, including Long, were to develop plans to help sell Agusta choppers in other medical markets. The Star’s research shows very little work was done for the $4.8 million. It is not known if Italian authorities are probing the Ontario deal.
At the time of the ORNGE deal, Orsi was the chief executive officer of AgustaWestland. Spagnolini was the chief operating officer. Spagnolini has since taken over Orsi’s job at Agusta, while Orsi is chairman of parent company Finmeccanica. Neither has been charged, but both were detained Tuesday and offices and houses in Italy have been searched.
Mazza’s recently released expenses show numerous occasions when he entertained Agusta officials in Toronto and, in one case, Thunder Bay. There are several expensive dinners at public expense. One at Via Allegro near Sherway Gardens simply states “Agusta” as guests. Cocktails, steaks and a $279 bottle of wine (the name of the wine is blurred in the expense report and unreadable) totalled $1,334. That was in 2007, the year before ORNGE chose AgustaWestland to supply helicopters.
When that deal was done, in 2008, the final negotiations took place at the offices of AgustaWestland, in a small town a two-hour drive from Milan. ORNGE had asked for expressions of interest from Agusta and two other helicopter companies, all specifying a chopper that had de-icing capability. Only Agusta had this design (the de-icing has not been used by ORNGE), and the deal was inked when Mazza and several other ORNGE officials flew over. One ORNGE executive on the trip recalls negotiations to hammer out the deal took place without Mazza and Orsi, who left for two days. Those in attendance were told the two top executives were on a boat.
Just as ORNGE, through Mazza, paid for Toronto dinners and the hotel rooms in Thunder Bay, it appears that Agusta covered the expenses of Mazza, other ORNGE officials and chairman Rainer Beltzner on trips to Italy. In a reply to questions Tuesday, Beltzner confirmed that he took one trip to Italy with Mazza to check out the manufacturing process and Agusta paid for his ground transportation and “arranged” his hotel and some meals. “I don’t know who paid,” said Beltzner. “I didn’t.”
Beltzner said that while in Italy he conducted a “review of Agusta flight and assembly operations, training academy, and parts management information systems.” He said he also had a “business meeting and lunch with Giuseppe Orsi.”
While Mazza’s expenses show ORNGE paid for his airfare on several trips to Italy, there is no record of payments for his hotel or other expenses.
On one trip that he took to Italy, with girlfriend Kelly Long in 2011, Mazza and Long attended the world-renowned La Scala opera house in Milan as the guest of Agusta. Long wore a $3,000 dress purchased by Mazza, according to a person close to him.
Mazza, who was paid $4.6 million in salary, bonus and loans by ORNGE in 2010-11, was not the only Ontario official to visit the Agusta plant in Italy. While she was minister of economic development and on a trade mission to Italy, Sandra Pupatello took a two-hour road trip to the Agusta plant in 2011 to discuss the possibility of Agusta locating a facility in Ontario.
In an interview, Pupatello said she and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan also attended a Mazza-organized dinner in Yorkville with Agusta officials prior to the September 2010 launch of the Agusta-ORNGE program. “All we knew was that Agusta had won a bid with the Ontario government to supply helicopters,” Pupatello said.
Kevin Donovan can be reached at 416-312-3503 or kdonovan@thestar.ca .
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Mazza “was never offered and would never have accepted anything from anybody.”
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Tory MPP Frank Klees calls on Wynne to clear ORNGE air
Premier said Thursday that committee probing Ontario’s embattled air ambulance service — halted by prorogation last fall — will be reconvened as soon as possible.
By: Robert Benzie Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Queen’s Park Bureau Chief, Staff reporter, Published on Thu Feb 14 2013
The committee investigating the ORNGE air ambulance scandal should be revived, opposition critics say.
Halted by prorogation last fall, the Queen’s Park committee probing Ontario’s embattled air ambulance service still has witnesses to hear from and a report to write.
“The hearings confirmed that the Ministry of Health failed in its oversight,” said Tory critic Frank Klees. “To date, there have been no consequences for anyone who had oversight responsibilities, whether in the ministry or the (former) board of directors.”
Klees, who has led the charge for answers at Queen’s Park in the ORNGE affair, said Premier Kathleen Wynne must prove she wasn’t complicit. The NDP joined the Tories Thursday in asking for the committee to be revived.
Wynne said Thursday that all nine standing committees, including the public accounts committee probing ORNGE, will be reconvened as soon as possible. The premier said she would testify if called to a committee.
Former premier Dalton McGuinty was unavailable when asked to testify at the ORNGE committee last year.
Klees said claims should be started on behalf of Ontario taxpayers by ORNGE “with a view to compensation both through (former board members’) liability insurance and through them personally.”
ORNGE’s new board has not revealed its plans, if any, though Health Minister Deb Matthews has encouraged the new board to take action, particularly regarding recovery of any public monies that funded “inappropriate payments” to ORNGE founder and former CEO Dr. Chris Mazza.
A Star story recently revealed that Mazza received $4.6 million over two years, composed of salary, bonus, loans that have not been repaid, and a large cash advance on a future bonus.
“The board has indicated to me that they have a profound interest to pursue all remedies available to them. They have my full support,” Matthews said, adding that she has concerns about the “adequacy of the oversight provided by the previous board of directors.”
Dr. Andrew McCallum, ORNGE’s new chief executive officer, said Thursday that progress is being made in improving the quality of ORNGE’s patient care and its response time to accident scenes and medical transfers.
McCallum said ORNGE now has a “faster and more streamlined approach to training paramedics.” He also said the service has instituted specialty training in medical care, flight planning, flight following and the protocol for transferring patients.
Premier said Thursday that committee probing Ontario’s embattled air ambulance service — halted by prorogation last fall — will be reconvened as soon as possible.
By: Robert Benzie Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Queen’s Park Bureau Chief, Staff reporter, Published on Thu Feb 14 2013
The committee investigating the ORNGE air ambulance scandal should be revived, opposition critics say.
Halted by prorogation last fall, the Queen’s Park committee probing Ontario’s embattled air ambulance service still has witnesses to hear from and a report to write.
“The hearings confirmed that the Ministry of Health failed in its oversight,” said Tory critic Frank Klees. “To date, there have been no consequences for anyone who had oversight responsibilities, whether in the ministry or the (former) board of directors.”
Klees, who has led the charge for answers at Queen’s Park in the ORNGE affair, said Premier Kathleen Wynne must prove she wasn’t complicit. The NDP joined the Tories Thursday in asking for the committee to be revived.
Wynne said Thursday that all nine standing committees, including the public accounts committee probing ORNGE, will be reconvened as soon as possible. The premier said she would testify if called to a committee.
Former premier Dalton McGuinty was unavailable when asked to testify at the ORNGE committee last year.
Klees said claims should be started on behalf of Ontario taxpayers by ORNGE “with a view to compensation both through (former board members’) liability insurance and through them personally.”
ORNGE’s new board has not revealed its plans, if any, though Health Minister Deb Matthews has encouraged the new board to take action, particularly regarding recovery of any public monies that funded “inappropriate payments” to ORNGE founder and former CEO Dr. Chris Mazza.
A Star story recently revealed that Mazza received $4.6 million over two years, composed of salary, bonus, loans that have not been repaid, and a large cash advance on a future bonus.
“The board has indicated to me that they have a profound interest to pursue all remedies available to them. They have my full support,” Matthews said, adding that she has concerns about the “adequacy of the oversight provided by the previous board of directors.”
Dr. Andrew McCallum, ORNGE’s new chief executive officer, said Thursday that progress is being made in improving the quality of ORNGE’s patient care and its response time to accident scenes and medical transfers.
McCallum said ORNGE now has a “faster and more streamlined approach to training paramedics.” He also said the service has instituted specialty training in medical care, flight planning, flight following and the protocol for transferring patients.
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Colonel Sanders
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Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
As I said on the first page, this whole air ambulance
mess is pretty small beer:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... t-walking/
some votes in a riding in Toronto. What they did to Ontario
is criminal, and will cost the taxpayers many billions of dollars.
mess is pretty small beer:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... t-walking/
These people are happy to blow a BILLION dollars to buyThe gas-plant shutdowns will cost Ontarians anywhere from a quarter of a billion to a billion dollars. And this is only one of a set of mega-mismanagements by the McGuinty crowd: their green-energy “take the windmills and shut-up” policy, which so angered rural residents and local authorities; the scandals of the Ornge helicopter service; the eHealth mess; the massive deficits.
some votes in a riding in Toronto. What they did to Ontario
is criminal, and will cost the taxpayers many billions of dollars.
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Ornge air ambulance service to be subject to FOI law
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/s ... ml?cmp=rss
The province's troubled Ornge air ambulance system will be subject to Ontario's freedom of information law by the fall.
Health Minister Deb Matthews has re-introduced legislation that the government says will boost oversight of the scandal-plagued air ambulance service and limit what it can do without government approval, such as selling assets.
The original bill was introduced a year ago — one day after it was announced police were investigating financial irregularities at Ornge — but it died when Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature last October.
The only change in the new bill is the inclusion of provisions to put Ornge under the auspices of freedom of information legislation, which the opposition parties had demanded.
Matthews says the performance agreement signed in 2005 that led to Ornge's ill-fated foray into the for-profit sector wasn't adequate to prevent the abuse of taxpayer dollars.
She says the bill will protect whistleblowers who disclose information on Ornge and allow the government to take control of the agency in extraordinary circumstances through the appointment of a supervisor.
"My goal is to ensure that Ornge focuses on providing the highest quality air ambulance service possible and gets the best value for our precious health care dollars," said Matthews.
Ornge's former CEO, Chris Mazza, set up a series of private for-profit entities under the Ornge banner, and hid his $1. 4 million salary from the public.
His sky-high salary didn't stop Mazza from billing taxpayers thousands of dollars in expenses for luxurious trips to 75 cents for parking, or from taking $1.2 million in loans in a single year from Ornge and its different subsidiaries.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/s ... ml?cmp=rss
The province's troubled Ornge air ambulance system will be subject to Ontario's freedom of information law by the fall.
Health Minister Deb Matthews has re-introduced legislation that the government says will boost oversight of the scandal-plagued air ambulance service and limit what it can do without government approval, such as selling assets.
The original bill was introduced a year ago — one day after it was announced police were investigating financial irregularities at Ornge — but it died when Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature last October.
The only change in the new bill is the inclusion of provisions to put Ornge under the auspices of freedom of information legislation, which the opposition parties had demanded.
Matthews says the performance agreement signed in 2005 that led to Ornge's ill-fated foray into the for-profit sector wasn't adequate to prevent the abuse of taxpayer dollars.
She says the bill will protect whistleblowers who disclose information on Ornge and allow the government to take control of the agency in extraordinary circumstances through the appointment of a supervisor.
"My goal is to ensure that Ornge focuses on providing the highest quality air ambulance service possible and gets the best value for our precious health care dollars," said Matthews.
Ornge's former CEO, Chris Mazza, set up a series of private for-profit entities under the Ornge banner, and hid his $1. 4 million salary from the public.
His sky-high salary didn't stop Mazza from billing taxpayers thousands of dollars in expenses for luxurious trips to 75 cents for parking, or from taking $1.2 million in loans in a single year from Ornge and its different subsidiaries.
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Mt. Sinai’s top doctor quits amid ORNGE scandal
Dr. Tom Stewart resigns as hospital announces it will now disclose publicly all third-party contracts to increase transparency following probe into contract with ORNGE founder Chris Mazza.
Dr. Tom Stewart will continue his clinical practice at Mount Sinai.
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Thu Feb 28 2013
Mount Sinai’s top doctor has quit amid revelations his Toronto hospital paid ORNGE founder Chris Mazza $256,000 in public money — with no proof Mazza did some of the work for which he was paid.
“We regret this unfortunate situation,” Mount Sinai president Joseph Mapa said in a statement to the Star on Wednesday. He sent an internal note to hospital colleagues saying it was with a “heavy heart” he accepted Dr. Tom Stewart’s resignation as physician-in-chief and director of the medical/surgical intensive care unit.
Stewart will continue his clinical practice at Mount Sinai.
The hospital has also announced it will now disclose publicly all third-party contracts to increase transparency.
As part of its investigation into the ORNGE air ambulance service, the Star earlier reported that Mazza and Stewart, who are friends, had an unusual relationship. Each had a sort of consulting contract with the other’s publicly funded agency.
ORNGE paid Mount Sinai’s Stewart roughly $75,000 annually over seven years (a total of $436,000) to advise Mazza and ORNGE on medical issues — work that the air ambulance firm’s new managers said they could not confirm was done because the relationship was primarily between Mazza and Stewart.
Over a similar time period, Mount Sinai paid Mazza $256,000. Both men were already well compensated by their own agencies: Mazza earned $1.9 million in his last year at ORNGE and Mount Sinai paid Stewart $607,000 in salary and benefits in 2011.
After the Star’s initial stories, Mount Sinai began a review, which was recently completed. According to the hospital, it found that Mount Sinai had two separate contracts with ORNGE president Mazza, both “under the auspices” of Stewart.
First, between 2006 and 2008, the hospital paid Mazza $108,000 “for providing a variety of clinical and advisory services to the intensive care unit (at Mount Sinai),” according to a hospital statement. The hospital said “these services were in fact rendered.”
Secondly, between 2009 and 2011, Mount Sinai paid Mazza $148,000 “for a variety of advisory services to the critical care response team and the department of medicine.” The hospital’s review “concluded that there was no evidence that the full services for these payments were in fact rendered.”
Mount Sinai said in its release that "Dr. Stewart acknowledged that this was an error in judgment on his part." Stewart's lawyer told the Star that Stewart "looks forward to concentrating full time on his clinical work."
Mount Sinai will not release the report and has not said whether it will seek from Mazza any of the monies paid to him. The hospital said the review has provided recommendations “designed to ensure accountability.” The hospital said it will begin disclosing annually all third-party relationships “to enhance oversight of outside contracts.”
According to an earlier statement from Stewart, he met Mazza in 2003 when both doctors “led the effort against the SARS outbreak.” They became friends and, according to a former colleague of Mazza’s, Stewart was very supportive when Mazza lost his son in 2006 in a skiing accident in Ontario.
Mazza’s expense reports show the two men occasionally dined together, and parking receipts show Mazza occasionally visited Stewart at Mount Sinai hospital.
That both men had contracts with the other’s agency was not generally known at either ORNGE or the hospital.
At Mount Sinai, Dr. Gary Newton, head of cardiology, has been appointed as interim physician-in-chief and other managers will fill Stewart’s other role as director of the medical/surgical intensive care unit.
Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or 416-312-3503 .
Dr. Tom Stewart resigns as hospital announces it will now disclose publicly all third-party contracts to increase transparency following probe into contract with ORNGE founder Chris Mazza.
Dr. Tom Stewart will continue his clinical practice at Mount Sinai.
By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Thu Feb 28 2013
Mount Sinai’s top doctor has quit amid revelations his Toronto hospital paid ORNGE founder Chris Mazza $256,000 in public money — with no proof Mazza did some of the work for which he was paid.
“We regret this unfortunate situation,” Mount Sinai president Joseph Mapa said in a statement to the Star on Wednesday. He sent an internal note to hospital colleagues saying it was with a “heavy heart” he accepted Dr. Tom Stewart’s resignation as physician-in-chief and director of the medical/surgical intensive care unit.
Stewart will continue his clinical practice at Mount Sinai.
The hospital has also announced it will now disclose publicly all third-party contracts to increase transparency.
As part of its investigation into the ORNGE air ambulance service, the Star earlier reported that Mazza and Stewart, who are friends, had an unusual relationship. Each had a sort of consulting contract with the other’s publicly funded agency.
ORNGE paid Mount Sinai’s Stewart roughly $75,000 annually over seven years (a total of $436,000) to advise Mazza and ORNGE on medical issues — work that the air ambulance firm’s new managers said they could not confirm was done because the relationship was primarily between Mazza and Stewart.
Over a similar time period, Mount Sinai paid Mazza $256,000. Both men were already well compensated by their own agencies: Mazza earned $1.9 million in his last year at ORNGE and Mount Sinai paid Stewart $607,000 in salary and benefits in 2011.
After the Star’s initial stories, Mount Sinai began a review, which was recently completed. According to the hospital, it found that Mount Sinai had two separate contracts with ORNGE president Mazza, both “under the auspices” of Stewart.
First, between 2006 and 2008, the hospital paid Mazza $108,000 “for providing a variety of clinical and advisory services to the intensive care unit (at Mount Sinai),” according to a hospital statement. The hospital said “these services were in fact rendered.”
Secondly, between 2009 and 2011, Mount Sinai paid Mazza $148,000 “for a variety of advisory services to the critical care response team and the department of medicine.” The hospital’s review “concluded that there was no evidence that the full services for these payments were in fact rendered.”
Mount Sinai said in its release that "Dr. Stewart acknowledged that this was an error in judgment on his part." Stewart's lawyer told the Star that Stewart "looks forward to concentrating full time on his clinical work."
Mount Sinai will not release the report and has not said whether it will seek from Mazza any of the monies paid to him. The hospital said the review has provided recommendations “designed to ensure accountability.” The hospital said it will begin disclosing annually all third-party relationships “to enhance oversight of outside contracts.”
According to an earlier statement from Stewart, he met Mazza in 2003 when both doctors “led the effort against the SARS outbreak.” They became friends and, according to a former colleague of Mazza’s, Stewart was very supportive when Mazza lost his son in 2006 in a skiing accident in Ontario.
Mazza’s expense reports show the two men occasionally dined together, and parking receipts show Mazza occasionally visited Stewart at Mount Sinai hospital.
That both men had contracts with the other’s agency was not generally known at either ORNGE or the hospital.
At Mount Sinai, Dr. Gary Newton, head of cardiology, has been appointed as interim physician-in-chief and other managers will fill Stewart’s other role as director of the medical/surgical intensive care unit.
Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or 416-312-3503 .
Re: Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership
Ombudsman André Marin urges Deb Matthews to give him oversight powers for ORNGE
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin says ORNGE will have no “credible accountability” unless he’s given oversight powers.
Ontario Ombudsman Andr� Marin says the creation of a patient advocate’s post is well short of what’s needed to restore public confidence in ORNGE.
RICK MADONIK / TORONTO STAR file photo
Ontario Ombudsman Andr� Marin says the creation of a patient advocate’s post is well short of what’s needed to restore public confidence in ORNGE.
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin warns there will be no “credible accountability” at ORNGE unless long-awaited new legislation to reform the troubled air ambulance service gives him oversight powers.
In a letter to Health Minister Deb Matthews obtained by the Star, Marin says the creation of a patient advocate’s post is well short of what’s needed to restore public confidence in the agency.
Marin charges the bill is re-inventing the wheel in a time of government belt-tightening with an unnecessary “new bureaucracy” that will be seen as toothless because the patient advocate’s office reports to the health ministry.
“They would not be independent of government. Far from being watchdogs, they would operate on a ministerial dog leash,” Marin wrote in the two-page letter.
“The ombudsman is a fully independent officer of parliament . . . by contrast, the patient advocate reports to an ORNGE vice-president, not even the board of directors.”
“He or she resides within the bowels of the organization and cannot be expected to investigate any issue with institutional credibility,” added Marin, noting the job description posted last year calls on the advocates’ office to “investigate, resolve, document and report organization-specific patient and visitor compliments and concerns.”
The use of the word “compliments” is troubling, Marin said.
“Needless to say, a position that involves reporting compliments back to management ought not to be confused with the role of the Ombudsman.”
When she re-introduced the bill last week, Matthews rejected opposition calls for ombudsman oversight at ORNGE, where a Toronto Star investigation found potentially deadly delays in dispatching air ambulances to accident scenes along with high salaries, weak expense controls, preferential hiring practices and inadequate oversight by the government.
In some cases, air ambulances were not dispatched until land ambulances confirmed their need — even in situations where it appeared obvious that rapid air transport of critically injured patients to hospital would save lives.
Matthews defended the patient advocate as a way to ensure ORNGE is held to a higher standard after the Star’s discovery of widespread problems, which have led to a criminal investigation by Ontario Provincial Police.
With a patient advocate working internally, concerns can be handled more quickly and expeditiously with faster results, the minister argued.
The job description posted last year says the advocate will “assist patients and their caregivers by providing information about ORNGE, responding to questions and concerns relating to their transport, providing information about ORNGE’s patient complaints and patient relations processes and assisting patients in accessing those processes.”
Opposition parties have already taken aim at the bill, with New Democrat health critic France Gélinas vowing to introduce amendments in legislative committee to force the government to subject ORNGE to ombudsman oversight. She also wants air ambulance officials to be required to appear annually before a legislative committee of MPPs.
“Absolutely,” Gélinas told the Star, questioning why the minority Liberal government wouldn’t want more oversight of ORNGE after all its problems.
She said her measures are “easy, they don’t cost anything . . . but yet they’re (the government) very reluctant to bring that level of transparency and accountability.”
While the bill, which was not passed before the legislature was suspended by former premier Dalton McGuinty last October, now includes new provisions demanded by the opposition parties making ORNGE subject to freedom of information laws, the Progressive Conservatives have also been critical.
“There’s no real intent to transparency here whatsoever,” Tory health critic Christine Elliott told the Star.”
The troubles at ORNGE, and the political headaches it has caused for the government now headed by Premier Kathleen Wynne, mean the government should welcome more scrutiny to keep the agency on its toes, Marin said.
“Sound public policy to bring proper oversight to this organization is still sorely needed.”
Among the troubles reported by the Star in its extensive investigation of ORNGE, former chief executive Dr. Chris Mazza was paid $4.6 million in his last two years – including salary, loans, bonuses and cash advances.
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin says ORNGE will have no “credible accountability” unless he’s given oversight powers.
Ontario Ombudsman Andr� Marin says the creation of a patient advocate’s post is well short of what’s needed to restore public confidence in ORNGE.
RICK MADONIK / TORONTO STAR file photo
Ontario Ombudsman Andr� Marin says the creation of a patient advocate’s post is well short of what’s needed to restore public confidence in ORNGE.
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin warns there will be no “credible accountability” at ORNGE unless long-awaited new legislation to reform the troubled air ambulance service gives him oversight powers.
In a letter to Health Minister Deb Matthews obtained by the Star, Marin says the creation of a patient advocate’s post is well short of what’s needed to restore public confidence in the agency.
Marin charges the bill is re-inventing the wheel in a time of government belt-tightening with an unnecessary “new bureaucracy” that will be seen as toothless because the patient advocate’s office reports to the health ministry.
“They would not be independent of government. Far from being watchdogs, they would operate on a ministerial dog leash,” Marin wrote in the two-page letter.
“The ombudsman is a fully independent officer of parliament . . . by contrast, the patient advocate reports to an ORNGE vice-president, not even the board of directors.”
“He or she resides within the bowels of the organization and cannot be expected to investigate any issue with institutional credibility,” added Marin, noting the job description posted last year calls on the advocates’ office to “investigate, resolve, document and report organization-specific patient and visitor compliments and concerns.”
The use of the word “compliments” is troubling, Marin said.
“Needless to say, a position that involves reporting compliments back to management ought not to be confused with the role of the Ombudsman.”
When she re-introduced the bill last week, Matthews rejected opposition calls for ombudsman oversight at ORNGE, where a Toronto Star investigation found potentially deadly delays in dispatching air ambulances to accident scenes along with high salaries, weak expense controls, preferential hiring practices and inadequate oversight by the government.
In some cases, air ambulances were not dispatched until land ambulances confirmed their need — even in situations where it appeared obvious that rapid air transport of critically injured patients to hospital would save lives.
Matthews defended the patient advocate as a way to ensure ORNGE is held to a higher standard after the Star’s discovery of widespread problems, which have led to a criminal investigation by Ontario Provincial Police.
With a patient advocate working internally, concerns can be handled more quickly and expeditiously with faster results, the minister argued.
The job description posted last year says the advocate will “assist patients and their caregivers by providing information about ORNGE, responding to questions and concerns relating to their transport, providing information about ORNGE’s patient complaints and patient relations processes and assisting patients in accessing those processes.”
Opposition parties have already taken aim at the bill, with New Democrat health critic France Gélinas vowing to introduce amendments in legislative committee to force the government to subject ORNGE to ombudsman oversight. She also wants air ambulance officials to be required to appear annually before a legislative committee of MPPs.
“Absolutely,” Gélinas told the Star, questioning why the minority Liberal government wouldn’t want more oversight of ORNGE after all its problems.
She said her measures are “easy, they don’t cost anything . . . but yet they’re (the government) very reluctant to bring that level of transparency and accountability.”
While the bill, which was not passed before the legislature was suspended by former premier Dalton McGuinty last October, now includes new provisions demanded by the opposition parties making ORNGE subject to freedom of information laws, the Progressive Conservatives have also been critical.
“There’s no real intent to transparency here whatsoever,” Tory health critic Christine Elliott told the Star.”
The troubles at ORNGE, and the political headaches it has caused for the government now headed by Premier Kathleen Wynne, mean the government should welcome more scrutiny to keep the agency on its toes, Marin said.
“Sound public policy to bring proper oversight to this organization is still sorely needed.”
Among the troubles reported by the Star in its extensive investigation of ORNGE, former chief executive Dr. Chris Mazza was paid $4.6 million in his last two years – including salary, loans, bonuses and cash advances.
