Ford fires back after criticism of staff payroll

Doug Ford is firing back at critics after the number of premier’s office staff making at least $100,000 a year has more than doubled to 48 people.

“The gravy train has pulled into the premier’s office,” Liberal MPP John Fraser (Ottawa South) charged Monday as the legislature resumed sitting for the first time since the annual “Sunshine List” of $100,000 earners was released.

“At a time when Ontario families are struggling, how does this premier justify increasing the staff?”

Ford, elected in 2018 on a mantra of “respect for taxpayers,” bristled at the question in a testy exchange with Fraser.

“The nerve of the member, to say about saving taxpayers’ money,” the premier shot back.

“Your leader, Bonnie Crombie, called the tax break that we gave on gas a gimmick,” Ford added.

Crombie said last week that Ford is jeopardizing jobs of the future in Ontario with “reckless” underfunding of colleges and universities as several run deficits.

She questioned whether the gas tax cut, which costs the provincial treasury $1.2 billion a year as the government notched a $9.8-billion deficit, could be better spent on improving health care and education with 2.3 million Ontarians unable to find a family doctor.

Ford did not explain why the number of premier’s office staff has grown so dramatically under his Progressive Conservatives. In 2019, his first full year in government, there were 20 staff in the premier’s office earning at least $100,000 — two more than former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne. But by last year, there were 48 staff on the list, for a total of $6.9 million in annual salaries, up from $2.9 million in 2019.