Sunshine List generates opposition heat

Updated The sun wasn’t shining today – but the Sunshine List was released this afternoon at Queen’s Park.

It’s the list that shows taxpayers how many people on the public dime are earning more than $100,000. And some of the salaries are whoppers.

The top salary in Ontario’s public sector: $1.7 milion for Tom Mitchell, head of Ontario Power Generation. Behind him, Hydro One CEO Laura Formusa comes in at $1.04 million. And those two have a lot of company on the list.

In all, there are more than 88,000 people on the list; eleven per cent more than last year. The disclosure for 2012 under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure act contains plenty of police officers, firefighters, nurses, teachers, health care workers and university employees.

The government says the average salary was $125,000.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath says “The average Ontarian earning about a third of that much is interested in another conversation.” Horwath – who earned $158 thousand as NDP leader in 2012 and says she’s very grateful for it – says it’s all pretty rich.

“I think people would be shocked to see that some of the CEO’s are getting increases in their salaries that are more than what a family in Hamilton would earn in a year.” She wants a salary cap so no public sector executive can make more than $418,000 – twice the premier’s salary of $209,000.

Premier Kathleen Wynne likes the idea but isn’t making any promises. “People need to know what people are earning. They need to know the work that is being done for that money that is being earned.”

The Conservatives say public salaries are out of control. “This is proof that a wage freeze is required and this is proof that this government cannot manage.”

On the Sunshine List: Murray Martin, president and CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences, with a salary of $647,000. Kevin Smith, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s in Hamilton, $645,000/

With Hamilton’s police chief in a dispute with the city council over a budget increase, 295 officers on the force earned over $100 thousand dollars last year; that’s more than 37 per cent of the force.

Inspector David Doel – suspended with pay for three years under police act charges – earned $138,000.

TVO’s Steve Paikin of the public affairs show “The Agenda” raised eyebrows with his salary of $302,000 as host of a little-watched program.

This list is just for people who get their paycheques directly or indirectly from the provincial government. There was lots of talk today that $100,000 isn’t really that much of a salary these days, as it was when the list was started in the 1990s, And they should raise that threshhold for the list in future years. But right now that’s just talk.