Peter George (professor) - Contract Controversy

Contract Controversy

According to Maclean's Magazine, Peter George was Ontario's highest paid university president and received over $500,000 in salary and taxable benefits in 2007. The executive of the McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA) passed a resolution in late June 2008 that raised questions about the appropriateness of some of the specifics of President George's post-retirement payments in the form of research leaves and expressed concerns about the secrecy that seems to have characterized the process involved in his controversial contract.

The contract, meant to remain confidential, provides Dr. George with a $1.4 million retirement allowance, to be paid over 14 years. The payments are to made at the rate of $99,999 per year, which was $1 below the threshold that would require the payments to be reported publicly under salary-disclosure legislation in place when the contract was signed. In 2006 Ontario Universities became subject to Freedom of Information legislation, and the Hamilton Spectator newspaper applied to request release of the contract; the university fought for two years to prevent this release until it finally provided the newspaper with the contract in 2008.

In a Hamilton Spectator article in March 2010, the paper states that Dr. George now considers attempting to hide the retirement bonus from disclosure to be "the most foolish thing he did in office". According to Dr. George, "I take full responsibility for the stupidity of converting my post-retirement allowances into a figure that was seen quite clearly as an attempt to avoid public disclosure."