I was ready to get up in arms, but this is actually good news. It looks like at one point in tiny text under our national parks it would say "state park" -- which doesn't make sense in canada, they are fixing that.
Although the locations were titled "provincial park" in large text, in small print, many across the country were labelled as "state parks" — a longstanding practice, according to the company.
However, that language came under increased scrutiny in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated threat that he wants to annex Canada against the wishes of Canada's political leaders and widespread public opinion.
You don't pay taxes on the option, because you haven't bought the option till you exercise it.
Anyway the amount was kinda fixed (it's been awhile) like 25%, it was also years ago, so things may have changed. They are also distinct from RSU's which i believe aren't taxed as low, but still better than top marginal tax rate for income.
Anyway it doesn't seem like those are really the whole story (https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36l575/eli5_how_can_it_be_that_ceos_often_pay_an/) -- it looks like the tax escape mechanism is to get deferred stocks - which admittedly for the Tobias case we'd have to see how those stocks were awarded. I still think my point 2 applys - why would he take compensation in this mostly stocks manner (and like every other CEO i've seen) unless there was some benefit.