Mazza made $9.3M over six years: minister

TORONTO - Ousted Ornge CEO Chris Mazza collected $9.3 million over six years at the province's publicly funded air ambulance service, the governing Liberals confirmed Wednesday.

The recently reported figure "is accurate," Health Minister Deb Matthews said after testifying at a legislative committee that is looking into the Ornge spending scandal.

That includes salary, bonuses, expenses and other fees, she said. A summary sheet outlining what Mazza collected will be provided to the committee to "make it all clear."

The committee had previously heard that Mazza made $1.4 million in a single year, on top of hefty loans totalling $1.2 million, but the grand total had not been confirmed until Wednesday.

ORNGE chopper lacked safety system

An air ambulance helicopter that crashed in northern Ontario killing four lacked a key piece of safety gear that may have provided an urgent warning to the pilots to “pull up” as they descended into a forest.

Several of the aging Sikorsky helicopters in ORNGE’s fleet had upgraded electronics, including a ground proximity warning system, but not the one that was based in Moosonee.

That left the crew of the Sikorsky S-76 without a potentially life-saving back-up as they departed on a midnight flight to Attawapiskat from their Moosonee base on May 31.

ORNGE spent taxpayer money on $10M life insurance policy for Chris Mazza

ORNGE took out a $10 million life insurance policy on its highly paid former chief executive Dr. Chris Mazza in the latest example of excess at the troubled air ambulance agency, the Progressive Conservatives say.

Taxpayers footed a $450,000 one-time premium for the coverage, which the provincial government should terminate and salvage whatever cash value remains, Tory MPP Frank Klees (Newmarket—Aurora) told reporters Wednesday.

MUHC, ORNGE and the banality of corruption

Whenever the snow starts to melt, I notice smells re-emerge that I had forgotten about, like of the wood of my hallways or of the White Birch paper plant.

Normally, the stench of corruption isn’t hidden by the whims of catastrophic climate chaos. But in the case of the SNC Lavalin saga, have been relatively quiet throughout winter’s freeze. Until the snow started to melt.

Star investigation: Mt. Sinai’s top doctor quits amid ORNGE scandal

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.

Mazza shared fine dinners, finer wines, with AgustaWestland execs arrested in Italy

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.”

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 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.

Chris Mazza of ORNGE got $4.6 million in two years

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.

ORNGE: Mazza expensed ski trips worth $15,000

Ontario’s cash-strapped health-care system paid for two of Dr. Chris Mazza’s ski trips.

In a three-week period during the winter of 2010, the ORNGE founder visited two top western ski resorts at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $15,000, including airfare, hotel, lift tickets, registration at medical courses and a $700-a-day “stipend.”

Mount Sinai orders review of hospital’s ‘agreement’ with Chris Mazza

An “external independent review” commissioned last week by the Toronto hospital will examine “agreements” between Mazza and the hospital that recently came to light in a Star investigation.

Earlier, the Star reported that top Mount Sinai doctor Tom Stewart was paid $436,000 in public money by ORNGE over seven years to advise Mazza and ORNGE on medical issues — work that the air ambulance firm’s new managers say they cannot confirm was done because the relationship was primarily between Mazza and Stewart.

ORNGE officials Rainer Beltzner, Maria Renzella and Rhoda Beecher approved Mazza payments

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.

ORNGE: Dr. Chris Mazza’s salary and expense records gather dust after Queen’s Park legislature prorogued

A bankers box stuffed with Dr. Chris Mazza’s financial records sits, gathering dust, at Queen’s Park.

Details of about $400,000 of the former ORNGE president’s expenses, plus salary, bonus and loan payments totalling an estimated $4 million over six years, would have been made public last October if Premier Dalton McGuinty had not prorogued the legislature.

ORNGE: Salary for service’s new No. 2 executive is $240,000, plus bonus

ORNGE has taken another step toward transparency, making public the salary of its No. 2 man and the salaries of other executives.

The move came two days after ORNGE announced it had hired former airline executive Rob Giguere as chief operating officer but then refused to disclose his salary.

This same secrecy led to the Star investigation that sparked the ORNGE scandal last year, when it was discovered that the publicly funded air ambulance service hid the $1.4-million salary of former CEO Dr. Chris Mazza — as well as the salaries of other executives — for several years.

Despite new president’s claims, Ornge still plagued by problems, ‘top-down culture’: staff

Days after the new president of Ontario’s air ambulance service touted a massive turnaround in the culture at Ornge, front-line staff say little has changed.

It has been almost a year since financial scandal rocked the taxpayer-funded organization, and interim president Ron McKerlie calls Ornge a “vastly different” entity today — one where employees feel comfortable broaching concerns, and where the troubling legacy of disgraced former president Chris Mazza is being erased day by day.

Premier refuses, again, to testify before ORNGE probe

Premier Dalton McGuinty has refused a second request to testify before an all-party committee probing the ORNGE disaster.

Not only has the premier refused, House Leader John Milloy and the premier’s senior health policy advisor Sophia Ikura also did not accept invitations to appear before the probe on Wednesday.

Despite claims that the Liberals want to get to the bottom of the air ambulance scandal, charged Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott, all they are doing is blocking progress.

Ornge board in the dark about aspects of former CEO’s pay

The $1.4-million in annual compensation paid to former Ornge chief executive officer Chris Mazza included unauthorized payments made without supporting invoices, the air ambulance service’s former chairman alleges.

Dr. Mazza also demanded that company executives give him a vacation payout, which was not authorized by the board of directors, and insisted that he be paid for medical services he was no longer providing.

Deb Matthews says ex-Ornge CEO Chris Mazza’s defence ‘pure nonsense’

Calling ORNGE founder Chris Mazza’s testimony “pure nonsense,” Health Minister Deb Matthews deflected opposition attempts to discredit her at a provincial probe examining the air ambulance scandal.

Tempers flared and insults were hurled, but Matthews stood her ground and insisted that despite what ORNGE former CEO Mazza testified on July 18, the opposite was often true.

Not only did Mazza stand her up twice, he stonewalled Auditor General Jim McCarter as he investigated, he refused to disclose his $1.4-million salary publicly and he “manipulated patient transfer numbers he reports to the ministry,” Matthews testified.

ORNGE’s Italian chopper firm wants $1.8 million back

Italian helicopter firm AgustaWestland wants to “claw back” $1.8 million because ORNGE founder Dr. Chris Mazza and his team failed to drum up new business.

“We were dissatisfied with the end result,” said Agusta spokesman Dan Hill from Washington. “They didn’t deliver the product.”

The product referred to by Hill was part of the controversial marketing services agreement between ORNGE and Agusta now under investigation by a Queen’s Park committee and the Ontario Provincial Police.

ORNGE: Former CEO of air ambulance service Chris Mazza refuses to return to testify

The medically fragile founder and ex-CEO of Ontario’s ORNGE air ambulance service is, once again, refusing to testify before a provincial probe.

Dr. Chris Mazza, did speak before an all-party hearing last Wednesday after threats of two legislative warrants. But he has informed the government through his lawyer, Roger Yachetti, that he won’t be back this summer.

Chris Mazza, Ornge Ex-CEO, Recalled By Legislative Committee

TORONTO - Former Ornge CEO Chris Mazza is being asked to face more questioning next week by members of a legislative committee looking into Ontario's troubled air ambulance service.

An emotional Mazza faced a day-long grilling by the committee last week, and said he didn't know what went wrong at Ornge, but that the Liberal government never told him he was veering off course.