List of Ontario public employees making over $100,000 grows

TORONTO — The number of public sector employees in Ontario earning more than $100,000 a year has grown to more than 377,000, with the top spot again going to the CEO of Ontario Power Generation.

The so-called Sunshine List, the disclosure of public sector workers who were paid six figures or more, grew by more than 70,000 names in 2024.

Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney says nearly half of the growth on the list released Friday was driven by the school board sector.

Ken Hartwick, who ended his tenure as OPG CEO at the end of 2024, had a salary of more than $2 million that year — more than double the second-highest paid employee, also an OPG executive.

Most of the highest-paid employees on the list are OPG executives, hospital presidents and presidents or CEOs of large agencies such as Ontario Health, the Ontario Public Service Pension Board and the Independent Electricity System Operator.

Number four on the list with a nearly $884,000 salary is Phil Verster, who resigned in December as president and CEO of provincial transit agency Metrolinx.

The $100,000 threshold for public sector salary disclosure came into effect in 1996 and with inflation would be about $180,249 in 2024 dollars. About 22,530 names on the list are over that inflationary threshold.

Successive governments have declined to raise the threshold for disclosure.

Earlier this month, Premier Doug Ford opened the door slightly to the possibility of giving members of provincial parliament a raise.

Base pay is set at $116,550 and they have not had a raise since 2008. Cabinet ministers earn $165,851 — less than their chiefs of staff and far less in some cases than deputy ministers, with some of them making more than $500,000.

“It’s terrible,” Ford said at a press conference when asked about pay for MPPs.

“They have no pension. I don’t want to sound like a bleeding heart for politicians, but come on, folks, these guys work their backs off and it’s not fair.”

He mused about forming a bipartisan group to look at the issue, but did not go any further.

Toronto city councillors voted this week to increase their salary by 24 per cent, to $170,588, which puts them roughly on par with what councillors made last year in Brampton, slightly less than those in Mississauga, and about $30,000 more than those in Hamilton.

Ford made $208,974 last year, with many of his top staffers earning more.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press