Calgary Alberta - Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) paid Keith Creel, chief executive officer, a total of $12.5 million in 2018, a year of record revenue for the Calgary based freight hauler.
 
Mr. Creel made a salary of $1.4 million, unchanged from 2017, his first year as the head of Canada's second-largest railway.
 
His compensation for 2018 included $4.3 million in share based awards, $2.5 million in stock options, and $3.1 million in bonus, according to a CP regulatory filing issued on Wednesday.
 
Alabama-born Mr. Creel flew the company plane to visit his family in the United States, a benefit CP says is an "important retention tool" worth $411,000.
 
In 2017, Mr. Creel's compensation was $20 million, driven by $10.5 million in stock options.
 
Much of that amount was a special grant intended to retain Mr. Creel at a time his mentor and predecessor, Hunter Harrison, was angling for the top job at CSX Corporation.
 
To make the grant, CP reduced Mr. Creel's long-term incentive plan compensation.
 
CP in 2018 posted record revenue of $7.3 billion, a 12 percent rise, and per-share profit of $13.61.
 
The railway's share price rose by 5 percent in 2018, compared with a 12 percent drop of the S&P/TSX Composite Index, and a 3 percent decline in the share price of Montreal rival Canadian National Railway (CN).
 
CP said the value of stock options awarded to Mr. Creel since 2013 was worth $31 million at the end of 2018.
 
Mr. Creel's share-based awards were worth almost $15 million.
 
Eric Atkins.