123,410 Ontario public workers top $100K list

TORONTO — The CEO of Ontario Power Generation earned nearly $1.2 million last year, making him the highest-paid public-sector employee in the province on a growing list of those earning $100,000 or more.

Jeff Lyash topped the so-called sunshine list with $1,155,900 in pay and $9,800 in taxable benefits, but next year he could be making even more.

OPG wrote a letter this week to the Ontario government saying its CEO would be paid a maximum of $1.9 million, but it is not changing a $3.8-million compensation cap the premier had asked to be revised.

The board “took great care” in calculating the $3.8-million regulatory cap, board chair Bernard Lord wrote, but it has voluntarily set the maximum compensation much lower, with the target at $1.5 million.

As a wage freeze lifts, all broader public-sector agencies have until September to post their proposals for new executive compensation packages under a framework that caps salaries at the 50th percentile of “appropriate comparators.” That means next year’s sunshine list totals could be much higher.

This year there are 123,410 workers on the list, up from 115,431 last year, earning salaries and benefits that total nearly $16 billion.

The $100,000 threshold has not changed since it was introduced by then-premier Mike Harris in 1996. While Premier Kathleen Wynne has suggested she won’t be increasing the threshold because that is still a lot of money, the government notes that if that were adjusted for inflation it would be almost $150,000 and 84 per cent fewer employees would be on the list.

Wynne was paid about $209,000 — which is not the highest of legislative employees. The director of broadcast and recording services, the clerk and the sergeant-at-arms, all of whom retired last year, earned more.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown made $181,000 and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath made $158,000.