Pay increases at McMaster University and Hamilton police include one nearing $147,000
Sunshine list: Area’s top public sector earners
Hefty salary increases — including one nearing $147,000 — as well as payouts to former staff came to light in Hamilton’s “sunshine list” of top public-sector earners.
The disclosure by the province Thursday put Hamilton’s police chief, Frank Bergen, on top of the municipality’s list, making $381,829 in salary and taxable benefits in 2023. It compared to $315,751 the year before — a jump of more than $66,000.
In addition, deputy police chiefs Ryan Diodati and Paul Hamilton also saw their earnings rise. Diodati made $301,042 in 2023 compared to $284,042 the year before, while Hamilton got $292,270 last year compared to $254,210 in 2022.
Hamilton Police Services referred questions about the pay increases to the board, which did not respond by deadline.
At McMaster University, Dr. Mohit Bhandari earned nearly $147,000 more in 2023 than 2022. The chair of the department of surgery was Hamilton’s seventh-highest public sector earner with $632,776 in salary and taxable benefits.
“Dr. Bhandari has been acknowledged among the top 10 most cited orthopedic fracture surgeons in the world,” Wade Hemsworth, spokesperson for McMaster said in a statement. “He is a senior-tier Canada research chair and a recipient of the Order of Ontario and Order of Canada. His 2023 earnings include funding from external sources, specifically externally sponsored research funding.”
McMaster’s president David Farrar also cracked the top 10 Hamilton earners for the first time since being formally appointed to lead the university in December 2019. His earnings increased to $466,274 in salary and taxable benefits last year from $416,803 the year before — a rise of nearly $50,000.
“After being in a salary freeze since 2010, the president’s role was formally reviewed, which identified a significant increase in the scope of duties,” said Hemsworth. “The president’s salary was then adjusted to better reflect the current range of expanded responsibilities.”
Farrar has announced that he plans to leave the role on June 30, 2025, at the end of his five-year term. Hamilton’s second-highest earner, Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) CEO Rob MacIsaac, who made $694,342 in 2023, will also leave his post when Tracey MacArthur takes over the helm of HHS on April 15.
The former president of St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Melissa Farrell, earned $304,579 in 2023 despite leaving the job in mid-May to become president and CEO at Halton Healthcare. It was 60 per cent of the $513,079 she got in salary and taxable benefits in 2022. Farrell also earned $320,212 at her new job in 2023.
Former Hamilton city manager Janette Smith was the municipality’s second-highest earner despite retiring in October. She made $336,446 in salary and taxable benefits in 2023 — nearly $50,000 more than the $287,771 she made in 2022.
The city said in a statement that it can’t get the information to provide the reason for the pay increase because of the ongoing cybersecurity incident.
At the Brant County Health Unit, former CEO Jo Ann Tober was paid $333,346 in 2023 despite retiring in 2022. Brent Richardson took over the job on June 9, 2022, and was paid $239,248 last year.
For the seventh year in a row, one of Hamilton’s most prominent researchers topped the local “sunshine list” of public earners making six-figure salaries. Dr. Salim Yusuf, director of the Population Health Research Institute, made $805,946 in salary and taxable benefits split between HHS and McMaster.
Hamilton had nearly 12,200 public-sector salaries of $100,000 or more in 2023. The six-figure threshold was set in 1996 and the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator shows that would be the equivalent of $175,370 in 2023.