Watch the video above: Energy execs among Ontario’s highest paid public sector employees. Alan Carter reports.
TORONTO – Executives at Ontario’s government-owned utility, who have been under intense scrutiny for generous salaries and benefits, again topped the list of the province’s highest paid public sector employees in 2013.
Tom Mitchell, president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation, was the top earner at $1.71 million last year, including taxable benefits – about the same as 2012.
Next on the list was chief nuclear officer, Wayne Robbins, who took in $920,713.
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OPG came under fire last December when auditor general Bonnie Lysyk released a damning report about their compensation packages, saying they were “significantly more generous” than for comparable positions in the civil service.
She noted that the ranks of OPG’s “highly paid” executive and senior management group swelled by almost 60 per cent since 2005, creating a top-heavy organization.
Lysyk said it had a financial impact on the cost of electricity – a big headache for the governing Liberals and a source of political ammunition for the opposition parties.
In the wake of the report, OPG’s chairman Jake Epp – who collected $150,000 last year – fired three executives.
They included the No. 3 earner on the sunshine list, John Murphy, executive vice-president of strategic initiatives, who collected $910,869 in 2013. Chief financial officer Donn Hanbidge, who received $670,929, was also terminated.
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They were among 11 OPG executives who earned more than half a million dollars last year.
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Hydro One’s president and CEO Carmine Marcello, who started his job in January last year, earned $728,570. His predecessor Laura Formusa, who retired, received $1.04 million the year before.
There were 11,538 employees from OPG, Hydro One and their subsidiaries on the 2013 list, up from 11,376 the year before.
Ontario Power Authority CEO Colin Andersen earned $574,091, while Rosemarie Leclair, chairwoman and CEO of the Ontario Energy Board, took in $509,222.
Overall, the so-called “sunshine list” of workers earning at least $100,000 – which includes doctors, nurses, teachers, police and firefighters in addition to civil servants – increased about 11 per cent last year to 97,796 names.
That’s an 82 per cent increase from 2008, when there were 53,774 names on the list.
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However, the government said the average salary on the list was $127,433 last year – a slight decline from the year before – and the number of civil servants on the list grew by less than one per cent in 2013 to 11,349.
Inflation has played a part in the list’s growth over time, but the opposition parties say $100,000 is still a lot of money for many people.
“It’s clear that the government is not committed to a wage freeze across the board and they’re not committed to real savings,” said Progressive Conservative critic Lisa MacLeod.
“In fact, they’re not committed to good governance.”
Among the other top earners in the health-care sector was Robert Bell, president and CEO of Toronto’s University Health Network, who collected $828,633 in 2013, including taxable benefits. Catherine Zahn of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health took in $749,114.
The list included 163 hospital physicians – Thomas Stewart at Mount Sinai Hospital earned $581,010 – and 1,993 registered nurses.
TV Ontario host and producer Steve Paikin made $307,817, while CEO Lisa De Wilde took in $269,056.
Premier Kathleen Wynne made $198,873 in 2013.
Rod Phillips, who stepped down in January as CEO of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., earned $723,503. Robert Peter, head of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, took in $440,365.
Environment Commissioner Gordon Miller received $167,369, Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian got $206,108 and Ombudsman Andre Marin took in $230,995.
Former auditor general Jim McCarter earned $256,095, while Lysyk, who took over Sept. 3, 2013, didn’t make the list.
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