Here's how much money some politicians in Ontario made last year

Country104.com
March 28, 2022
Ryan Rocca

Ontario's 2021 Sunshine List was released Friday.

The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act of 1996 requires that organizations that receive funding from the province make public the names, positions, salaries, and total taxable benefits of employees who are paid $100,000 or more in the previous year, the Ontario website says.

The list must be made public by March 31 each year.

It applies to various organizations including the government, public health boards, hospitals, municipalities, Crown agencies, school boards, universities and colleges, among others.

Here is how much some politicians in the province made last year through their public roles, according to the public sector salary disclosure list:

At Queen’s Park

• Premier Doug Ford: $208,974.00; taxable benefits: $304.14
• Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath of the NDP: $180,885.96; taxable benefits: $266.94
• Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner: $125,874.00; taxable benefits: $193.98
• Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca: Not a sitting MPP / no data available

While not a politician, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore was in the public eye a lot last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He became the chief medical officer in late June, after being the top doctor in the Kingston-area public health unit.

Moore made $461,022.85 in 2021 ($235,314.14 while working as the province’s top doctor and $225,708.71 while working as the Kingston-area top doc). He had a total of $1,298.19 in taxable benefits.

Dr. David Williams, whom Moore replaced, meanwhile, made $351,807.67 as chief medical officer and had $419.39 in taxable benefits.

Mayors of some Greater Toronto Area municipalities

• Toronto Mayor John Tory: $197,316.08; taxable benefits: $1,524.20
• Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie: $144,294.80; taxable benefits: $1,347.07
• Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown: $146,208.13; taxable benefits: $17,315.37
• Oakville Mayor Rob Burton: $187,458.86; taxable benefits: $9,071.68
• Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward: $187,076.96; taxable benefits: $635.04
• Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua: $194,119.58; taxable benefits: $15,336.96
• Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti: $253,416.08; taxable benefits: $19,530.05
• Whitby Mayor Don Mitchell: $188,304.48; taxable benefits: $15,572.96
• Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter: $143,430.59; taxable benefits: $438.00
• Other Ontario mayors
• Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson: $188,996.08; taxable benefits: $607.68
• Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens: $199,203.92; taxable benefits: $9,909.16
• Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger: $193,621.09; taxable benefits: $6,195.52
• Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati: $116,946.08; taxable benefits: $1,095.76
• Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman: $121,349.52; taxable benefits: $7,346.80
• Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson: $130,879.89; taxable benefits: $7,066.02

A spokesperson for the Treasury Board said overall, the number of public sector employees earning more than $100,000 increased by 38,536 since 2020.

“More specifically, almost 95 per cent of the growth to the public sector salary disclosure is in the school boards sector. In fact, teachers’ salaries account for 92 per cent of the increase to this year’s list,” the spokesperson said.

Overall, the average reported salary decreased slightly to $123,738 in 2021 from $125,870 the previous year, the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, executives at Ontario Power Generation made up the top four highest-paid public employees in the province.

For the second year in a row, Kenneth Hartwick, president and CEO of the electricity Crown corporation, was top of the list with a reported salary of $1,628,246.

Ontario Power Generation’s Chief Strategy Officer Dominique Miniere was again the second-highest paid at $1,523,518, and two other executives at the corporation reported making more than a million dollars.

The full Ontario Sunshine List can be accessed on the provincial government website.