Sunshine list hits 244K names

Ontario’s annual Sunshine List of public servants earning six figures has ballooned to a record 244,188 — mostly because of the number of teachers crossing the $100,000 mark, the provincial government said.

There were 38,536 more workers on the public sector salary disclosure from civil servants to transit staff, police, nurses and dozens of other occupations.

Fully 95 per cent of the increase was at school boards, where 35,453 teachers joined the list, which identifies all public employees earning $100,000 or more.

“The average salary for a teacher with 10 years or more experience has crossed over the $100,000 threshold leading to more teachers appearing,” said Richard Mullin, spokesperson for Treasury Board president Prabmeet Sarkaria.

The president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association noted the threshold has not been adjusted for inflation since the Sunshine List was introduced more than two decades ago.

“So we should not be surprised to see an ever-increasing number of workers on the list,” Barb Dobrowolski told the Star, adding the government should not be “engaging in disingenuous media stunts and demonizing teachers and other public sector workers based on severely outdated criteria.”

Overall, the average salary on the list declined slightly, to $123,738 in 2021 from $125,870 in 2020.

With six weeks until the official start of the June 2 provincial election campaign, the list for 2021 was released Friday afternoon, a week earlier than required by law.

The biggest pay packets were found among senior executives at Ontario Power Generation, Metrolinx and in the hospital and health-care sectors.

The top four earned more than $1 million. They are: OPG chief executive Kenneth Hartwick at $1.6 million, his chief strategy officer, Dominique Minière, at $1.52 million, chief operations and chief nuclear officer Sean Granville with $1.06 million and chief projects officer Michael Martelli at $1.01 million.

In fifth spot was University Health Network chief executive Kevin Smith, whose purview includes Toronto General and Western hospitals, at $845,092, followed by chief executive Phil Verster of the Metrolinx transit agency, who earned $838,960.

Successive Liberal and Tory governments, including Premier Doug Ford’s, have refused to index the figure over fears it could cause political problems for them.

“Maintaining the threshold allows taxpayers to do a yearover-year comparison,” Mullin said.

The Bank of Canada inflation calculator shows $100,000 in 1996 would be the equivalent of $157,662 in 2021. Conversely, $100,000 last year was equal to $63,427 in 1996.

And the $15 minimum wage at full-time hours in Ontario is $30,000 annually.