Ontario Power Generation executives top annual Sunshine List

Ontario’s so-called sunshine list is out, and the three top-paid public employees in the province are all at Ontario Power Generation.

The disclosure of public sector workers who were paid more than $100,000 in 2022 had nearly 267,000 names, and Kenneth Hartwick, CEO of the electricity Crown corporation, is again in the top spot with a salary of a little more than $1.7 million.

Two other executives at the organization made nearly $1.7 million and nearly $1 million.

Phil Verster, the CEO of Metrolinx, Kevin Smith, the president and CEO of University Health Network, Mark Fuller, the president and CEO of the Ontario Public Service Pension Board, and Matt Anderson, CEO of Ontario Health, all made more than $800,000.

Treasury Board President Prabmeet Sarkaria says in a statement that the largest year-over-year increase was in hospitals and boards of public health, primarily driven by an increase in the number of nurses on the list.

“The largest year-over-year increase was in the hospitals and boards of the public health sector, which represented almost half of the growth of the list,” he wrote in a statement.

“This was primarily driven by an increase in the number of nurses represented on the list, which accounted for 78 per cent of the growth in that sector as our government has continued to make unprecedented investments in connecting the people of Ontario to convenient care, including by hiring more health care workers.”

The number of teachers earning $100,000 or more is at “historic highs,” Sarkaria wrote, with 65,510 in 2022, up from 29,975 in 2020.

Salaries of other notable Ontario public figures include:

• $202,818 for former Toronto Mayor John Tory
• $208,974 for Premier Doug Ford
• $346,303 for Ford’s then-chief of staff, Jamie Wallace, who is now CEO of Supply Ontario
• $466,057 for Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore
• $456,720 for Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer
• $391,986 for Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk
• $361,781 for OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique
• $348,615 for TVO journalist Steve Paikin

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.