Ontario’s 2023 Sunshine List has been published.
The City of Barrie has 662 employees on this year's list. Last year, there were 595 city staff on the list.
The province's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act requires any public servant salary at or above $100,000 to be declared and published yearly.
At the City of Barrie, chief administrative officer Michael Prowse had the top salary last year at $311,248.35, up from $302,425.73 in 2022.
Second on the list of city employees was former Barrie police chief Kimberley Greenwood, earning $289,473.60 in 2023, while current police chief Richard Johnston sits third with $274,818.88 earned.
Georgian College president and chief executive officer Kevin Weaver had a salary of $300,810.52 last year, up from the $261,751.94 he made in 2022.
At Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre, RVH president and CEO Gail Hunt had a 2023 salary of $510,828, followed by executive vice-president Nancy Savage at $387,003, executive vice-president Bentley Peterson at $350,602, Dave Brewin, vice-president, at $289,500, and Rachel Keane, vice-president, at $268,215.
In total, there were 772 employees at RVH on this year’s list, a significant increase from the 479 listed in 2022.
Dr. Charles Gardner, the medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, earned $316,546 in 2023, which was lower than the $325,055.25 earned in 2022.
The CAO of Simcoe County, Mark Aitken, earned $303,883 last year. He is the highest paid among 378 County of Simcoe employees on the 2023 list. Aitken is followed by health and emergency services general manager Jane Sinclair at $241,460.
There are at least 243 Barrie Police Service employees on the list; those range from front-line officers to those working in supervisory and management positions. There were 226 on the 2022 list.
There were also 130 Barrie Fire and Emergency Services personnel listed, which remained the same as in 2022.
There are 1,805 Simcoe County District School Board employees on the 2023 Sunshine List, which is down from the 1,915 on last year’s list. Director of education John Dance tops the list at the public board with $276,600.13.
There are 875 employees at the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board on the list. Topping the list is director of education Frances Bagley, who earned $249,789.85 in 2023.
The Sunshine List includes government employees, as well as those that work for Crown agencies, municipalities, hospitals, boards of public health, school boards, universities and colleges, Ontario Power Generation, and "other public-sector employers who receive a significant level of funding from the provincial government."
Since the Sunshine List was established in 1996, the threshold for disclosure (salaries of $100,000) has not changed. According to the government of Ontario website used for Sunshine List disclosure, the Canadian Consumer Price Index has increased by 54 per cent between 1996 and 2020.
Topping the list across the province in 2023’s list is Kenneth Hartwick, president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation, who earned $1,925,372 — nearly $200,000 more from last year.
According to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, $100,000 in salary in 1996 when the sunshine list was launched is now worth $180,249 in 2023 money.
There were 4,494 people on the Sunshine List when it was released in 1996. Today, there are 300,570 public service employees listed.
Check out the full Sunshine List for 2023 by clicking here.
