In the first two installments of this blog series, I looked into the massive salary of MaRS Discovery District’s CEO, the vast deficit in public reporting in spite of over $130M in public subsidies, the lack of performance management, the systemically poor results and low ROI, the lack of transparency of grant decisions and the reliance on intimidation and ostracization to silence critics.

Yesterday I published a companion post with extracts from the feedback  I received so far, the importance of whistleblowing in a healthy democracy, and the direct impact those who get more than their fair share (like the CEO of MaRS) should know they have on others, like entrepreneurs  who have to work another full-time job to make ends meet.

Now I will take a look into the claims by MaRS that it constitutes a “public-private partnership”, and its expansion into the realm of private services.

But first, the 2009 salaries of MaRS employees were just published as part of the latest provincial disclosure, so below is a screenshot. The CEO made $436K in 2009, and MaRS continues to use public funding to add positions compensated over $100K – there are now 16 (out of 42 employees in 2008 – staff numbers for 2009 have not been disclosed yet):

MaRS salaries above $100K in 2009

What public-private partnership?

On its website, MaRS claims that a “combination of private and public funding allows MaRS—a charitable organization—to offer these services.” While MaRS spins its communication to imply that private donors generously contribute to the budget, and thus that taxpayers’ dollars acted as a catalyst, the reality is very different. Almost all of the revenue (over 90% in 2008) comes from government grants and rental / meeting room income from buildings purchased with public dollars.

If you think much private capital went into MaRS, think again. In an interesting 2006 Powerpoint presentation by the hub, the numbers already showed that only $16M came from private sector donations – while government subsidies amounted to $79M. There were loans too, but those qualify as much as private “investments” as the money credit card companies lend us every month. Overall, a far cry from the catalyst effect we were sold on.

From a planned $79M, the subsidies actually reached $130M by 2008. But the private contributions did not increase – the sure sign of a good public-private partnership. I would also be curious to learn what the private donors got in return for their money. Private companies do not tend to give away money for nothing.

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