Ontario’s Sunshine List of $100,000-plus earners tops 300,000 for first time

Last year, a record 300,572 people on the provincial payroll made $100,000 or more, up from 266,903 in 2022 and 244,188 the year before.

“The largest year-over-year increases were in the hospitals, municipalities and services, and post-secondary sectors, which together represented approximately 80 per cent of the growth on the list,” Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney said Thursday. 

Executives at Ontario Power Generation, the Crown-owned utility that keeps the lights on, dominated the top five.

OPG president and chief executive Kenneth Hartwick earned $1,925,372; chief strategy officer Dominique Minière $1,194,532; chief project officer Michael Martelli $972,746; chief operating officer Nicolle Butcher $894,783; and executive vice-president of business strategy Christopher Ginther $889,925.

Rounding out the top 10 were executives in the health, transit and pension sectors.

Ronald Cohn, president and chief executive of the Hospital for Sick Children earned $851,414; University Health Network president and CEO Kevin Smith $844,992; Metrolinx president and CEO Phil Verster $838,097; Ontario Pension Board president Mark Fuller $826,539, and Ontario Health chief executive Matthew Anderson $821,000.

The opposition New Democrats have been urging Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government to fire Verster over the ongoing delays to the completion of the $12.8-billion Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

That 19-kilometre transit line, under construction since 2011, was supposed to open four years ago, but has been hindered by numerous problems.

It remains unknown when it will finally open.

Other prominent names on the list are Ford at $208,974 and NDP Leader Marit Stiles at $174,950. MPPs earn a base salary of $116,550 but their salaries have been frozen since 2008.

Two former political aides who left the Ford government as a result of the $8.28 billion Greenbelt land swap scandal also made the list. Ryan Amato, a former chief of staff to ex-housing minister Steve Clark, made $156,769 and the premier’s former housing policy adviser Jae Truesdell $144,503. 

Also on the public sector salary disclosure are Doris Grinspun, chief executive officer of Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario at $601,376 and Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw at $353,411.  

Established in 1996 by former PC premier Mike Harris, the Sunshine List has lost its lustre over the years due to inflation.

Still, successive Tory and Liberal governments have repeatedly refused to raise the $100,000 threshold to keep it in line with cost-of-living increases.

“We have no plans to update the threshold on the Sunshine List,” said Legislative Affairs Minister Paul Calandra. “It’s an important document that serves the people well in highlighting the salaries that are paid.”

The official opposition New Democrats agreed.

“People think that $100,000 is still a lot of money, especially in an affordability crisis, a cost-of-living crisis,” said MPP Catherine Fife (Waterloo).  

The Bank of Canada inflation calculator shows $100,000 in 1996 would be the equivalent of $175,370 in 2023. Conversely, $100,000 last year was equal to $57,020 in 1996.

At full-time hours, Ontario’s current $16.55 minimum wage is worth $33,100 annually. Once it rises to $17.20 in six months, that will increase to $34,400.