Ontario releases 2023 Sunshine List, top earner made $1.9M

Five employees at Ontario Power Generation are in the top 10 earners on the province's so-called sunshine list for 2023, with the province's highest salary nearing $2 million.

The annual sunshine list documents public sector employees with salaries over $100,000. In this year's edition, there are 300,570 names, more than 30,000 higher than last year.

Kenneth Hartwick, CEO of the electricity Crown corporation, is in the top spot again with a salary of $1.93 million.

Two other executives at the organization — chief strategy officer Dominique Miniere and chief projects officer Michael Martelli — made nearly $1.2 million and nearly $1 million, respectively.

You can find a list of the top 100 earners below.

Caroline Mulroney, president of the Treasury Board, highlighted other high growth areas in this year's list in a release.

"The largest year-over-year increases were in the hospitals, municipalities and services, and post-secondary sectors, which together represented approximately 80 per cent of the growth of the list," she said.

The presidents and CEOs of the Hospital for Sick Children and the University Health Network are also in the top 10, earning around $850,000 each. So is Phil Verster, who is president and CEO of the provincial transit agency, Metrolinx, with a $838,097 salary.

Premier Doug Ford earned $208,974 last year. His chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, earned $324,675.

Matthew Anderson, CEO of Ontario Health, a provincial agency the Ford government created in 2019, earned $821,000. Meanwhile the public servant leading the Ministry of Health, deputy minister Catherine Zahn, earned $477,360, and Health Minister Sylvia Jones, $165,851.

There are more than 25,000 registered nurses on the list, including seven who earned more than $300,000 last year.

Chief Justice Sharon Nicklas, who was appointed to the top post in the province's judiciary last May, earned $388,960.

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The police chiefs of Thunder Bay, Daniel Taddeo, ($376,428) and Hamilton, Francis Bergen, ($374,492) were paid more last year than OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique ($373,472). Taddeo retired in April 2023.

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw, who took over the post in late 2022, earned $353,411.

Salaries of other key Ontario public figures include:

• $826,539 for Ontario Pension Board CEO Mark Fuller.

• $709,581 for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Association president & CEO Alfred Hannay.

• $601,376 for Registered Nurses Association of Ontario CEO Doris Grinspun.

• $596,392 for Dean of Ivey Business School, Western University, Sharon Hodgson.

• $563,291 for LCBO president & CEO George Soleas.

• $546,053 for Dean of the Faculty of Health Science, Queen's University, Jane Philpott.

• $533,112 for Royal Ontario Museum president & CEO Joshua Basseches.

• $486,192 for University of Toronto president Meric Gertler.

• $464,148 for Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore.

• $455,091 for Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer.

• $404,003 Art Gallery of Ontario director and CEO Stephan Jost.

• $395,974 for former auditor general Bonnie Lysyk.

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.

Search the complete Sunshine List for yourself here.