TORONTO — Executives at Ontario Power Generation made up the top four highest-paid public employees in the province in 2021, according to the province's annual "sunshine list."
The disclosure of public sector workers who are paid more than $100,000 had more than 240,000 names on the list released Friday, with Kenneth Hartwick, CEO of the electricity Crown corporation, again in the top spot.
Kenneth Hartwick had a salary of $1,628,246 in 2021 and Dominique Miniere, the company's chief strategy officer, was the second-highest paid with a salary of more than $1.5 million.
Two other executives at the corporation reported making more than a million dollars, in the third and fourth spot. Kevin Smith, CEO of Toronto's University Health Network, stayed in the fifth spot again with a salary of $845,092.
Others in the health field were also among the top 10 highest paid. Ontario Health CEO Matthew Anderson was in seventh place with a salary of $826,000.
Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health for the Sudbury, Ont., area, had the ninth-highest salary at $800,726 and the CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Andy Smith, was in the 10th spot with $799,614.
In total, there were 13 people employed by hospitals or public health boards who were among the top 30 highest paid. Sutcliffe was the only local public health official in the top 30 and the rest were high-ranking hospital executives plus one psychiatrist working in North Bay, Ont.
The province says the list of employees grew by 38,536 since 2020, with 96 per cent of the growth attributable to growth in the broader public sector.
A spokesman for Treasury Board President Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria noted that school boards accounted for much of the increase, and said the average reported salary decreased slightly in 2021 to $123,738 from $125,870 the year before.
Rounding out the top 10 were Phil Verster, CEO of the Metrolinx transit Crown corporation, with a salary of $838,960 and Ontario Pension Board CEO Mark Fuller at $805,247. Verster and Fuller were in the sixth and eighth spots, respectively.
Premier Doug Ford made $208,974 last year, similar to his salary from 2020. Ford's chief of staff, James Wallace, was paid $333,316.
The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, enacted by former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris in 1996, compels organizations that receive public funding from the province to report the names, positions and pay of people who make more than $100,000.
Taxable benefits from the previous year must also be disclosed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2022.
Holly McKenzie-Sutter, The Canadian Press
