New ethics watchdog gets a pay boost
Province will increase salary of integrity commissioner by $30K over his predecessor’s
Ontario’s new ethics watchdog will earn $30,000 a year more than his predecessor, the Star has learned.
When J. David Wake begins his fiveyear term as integrity commissioner next month, the former associate chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice will make $194,292.
That’s a $30,574 bump from the $163,718 earned by retired integrity commissioner Lynn Morrison in 2014, the last year for which figures are available.
“Justice Wake was chosen unanimously from numerous qualified candidates by an all-party hiring panel,” Government House Leader Yasir Naqvi’s office said Friday.
“Salary was one of several decision points all three parties agreed upon in their consideration of the new integrity commissioner.”
“I cannot speculate further on the internal discussions of the panel. Justice Wake comes to the post with a distinguished career in the justice system.
“His expertise will be an asset in his work to encourage and sustain a culture of integrity and accountability.”
Lynn Morrison, who retired Dec. 31, had been acting integrity commissioner for three years from 2007 before being formally appointed to a five-year term in 2010.
She helped launch the office after it was created by the provincial government in 1988, working as executive administrative officer and director before rising up the ranks.
Before that, the career public servant was the administrative assistant to the chief justice of the high court, now called the Superior Court of Justice, and the executive assistant to the chair of what is now the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.
Her better-paid successor had, since 2013, been the vice-chair of the federal Social Security Tribunal of Canada for handling Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security appeals.
That position has a salary range of between $129,500 and $152,300.
In 2012, as associate chief justice, Wake made $291,034 and in 2005, as a judge in Brampton and Ottawa, he earned $229,796.
“I believe that the position of integrity commissioner is an important one at this time given the elevated public interest in scrutiny over conflict of interest and ethical matters pertaining to elected officials and their staffs,” he said last month.
The integrity commissioner’s duties include giving conflict-of-interest advice to MPPs and ministerial staff to guard against ethics violations, reviewing members’ expenses and overseeing Ontario’s lobbyist registry.