Sunshine List membership balloons by 25%

YorkRegion.com
April 1, 2014
By Sean Pearce

The number of York Region employees earning in excess of $100,000 swelled by nearly 25 per cent last year, according to the so-called Sunshine List.

This year’s annual public sector salary disclosure reveals a total of 1,237 bureaucrats, police officers and other regional personnel pulled in more than $100,000 during 2013, which is up close to a quarter from the 1,002 on the previous list.

The highest-paid staff member on the regional payroll was medical officer of health Dr. Karim Kurji who made $323,850.62 and $994.35 in benefits, while York CAO Bruce Macgregor received a salary of $295,079.73 and $3,181.95 worth of benefits.

Regional chairperson and CEO Bill Fisch was paid $217,780.95 in 2013, plus $2,271.04 in benefits. York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe’s compensation was $228,529.29 in 2013 along with $7,233.81 in benefits.

Most of the region’s local-tier municipalities saw increases in the number of employees raking in more than $100,000 last year.

Last year, Aurora had 27 employees earning more than $100,000, up from 19 in 2012, while the number of Sunshine listers in Georgina more than doubled from 16 in 2012 to 38 in 2013. This year’s list showed there were 97 employees making more than $100,000 in 2013, compared to 63 a year prior and that the number of Sunshine listers in Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan have all increased to hit 190, 131 and 258, respectively.

In King, you’ll find eight employees making more than $100,000 per year, up from seven in 2012, and the number of employees on the Sunshine List in East Gwillimbury stayed static from last year’s list to this one at 15. In Whitchurch-Stouffville, the number of employees on the list dipped slightly from 29 in 2012 to 26 in 2013.

The highest paid staffer in the region during 2013 was Vaughan city manager Clayton Harris who grossed $261,485.90 and $16,641.57 in benefits.

In terms of elected officials, three of York Region’s mayors can be found on the Sunshine List.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti made $178,701.02, plus $8,137.22 in benefits, the highest salary in York and even above the $175,325 pulled in by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, while Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua and Richmond Hill Mayor Dave Barrow earned $170,054 and $169,690, respectively. Those figures don’t include the roughly $50,000 salaries, plus benefits and expenses the mayors are paid for sitting on regional council nor do they account for any compensation received for serving on external boards.

The number of York Region District School Board employees declined somewhat, from 645 in 2012 to 607 in 2013, while the York Catholic District School Board’s numbers rose slightly from 381 Sunshine listers in 2012 to 388 last year. The highest paid YRDSB employee was education director Ken Thurston who was paid $295,933.34 and received $12,638.42 in benefits last year, whereas the highest paid YCDSB employee for the same period was education director Patricia Preston, who earned $230,461.30 and an additional 5,646.42 in benefits.

Southlake Regional Health Centre had 127 employees make the Sunshine list for 2013, an increase from 114 employees in 2012, the highest paid of whom was hospital president and CEO Dr. Dave Williams who made $412,000.19 plus 2,338.92 in benefits. The number of Mackenzie Health staff on the list grew to 133 during 2013, from 114 a year prior, and the top earner was president and CEO Altaf Stationwala who made $460,480.17 and another $13,982.76 worth of benefits.

The number of Sunshine listers at Markham Stouffville Hospital shrank from 64 in 2012 to 57 last year. The No. 1 earner there was president and CEO Janet Beed who took in $418,415.27 and $10,524.12 in benefits.

To view the complete public sector salary disclosure document, visit http://bit.ly/1cRN7il.