Sunshine List will just keep growing
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TORONTOLike some giant, organic, ever-growing monster that feeds on your tax dollars, the public sector payroll just keeps growing.
This year, thanks to some very savvy number-crunching by one of my readers, Rodger Lucas, I’ve been able to compare a few salaries from the first list released in 1996 to the most recent list that came out last week.
Let’s examine the salary of Ontario Power Generation CEO Tom Mitchell.
He’s retiring this year and in 2014, he topped the Sunshine List as the highest earner on the public purse with a salary of $1.5 million. He gets a gold-plated, defined benefit pension as he heads out the door.
The salary for the equivalent job back in 1996? The head of Ontario Hydro, Mike Kupcis made less than half that — $502,853.
Take a look at some other comparisons. Back in 1995, Dave Boothby was chief of the Toronto Police Service. His salary? $172,427. Fast forward 20 years and we find Chief Bill Blair made $349,259. That’s a hefty increase — and it’s coming out of your pocket.
Not that I begrudge cops a decent salary and pension. It’s a tough, thankless job.
In 1995, David Gunn was General Manager of the TTC. His salary? $144,365. Last year, Andy Byford made $345,147. I’m not saying these folks aren’t worth it, but again, it’s a $200,000 salary hike for that position.
Then there’s the position of chair of the Ontario Securities Commission. Back in 1995, the job paid $131,822. Last year, Chair Howard Wetson brought home a whopping $705,425. That’s an almost $600,000 increase over 1995.
Politicians have likewise increased their pay. When Mike Harris was Premier in 1995, he made $126,475.
Last year, Kathleen Wynne made $208,974.
Have you had a $90,000 raise in the last 20 years?
No, me either.
Cabinet ministers back then made $101,308. Last year they made $182,436.
Is government any better?
Hello? How much should you pay someone to scrap a gas plant?
The biggest change, though, is in the size of the list.
The first Sunshine List was one slim volume.
Not any more.
The trough ran deep last week: it’s grown to six massive volumes.
Don’t forget in 1995, Ontario Hydro was the entire electricity system: They operated the generating plants, the transmission and the distribution system.
Ontario Hydro begat OPG and Hydro One. They begat the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), which in turn begat the Ontario Power Authority — and no one has the slightest clue what that murky organization does.
All of them came with fatcat CEOs who had to be paid massive salaries. You can’t be a CEO unless you have someone expensive to boss around. So they had to have deputies and vice-presidents — and they don’t come cheap.
And you wonder why your electricity bill is through the roof?
Then there’s Metrolinx.
Twenty years ago, that costly little boondoggle didn’t exist.
Now it’s eight closely typed pages of $100,000-a year types.
And it’s all coming out of your pocket.
Only in government would $100,000 be considered an entry level job.
Frankly, I blame Mike Harris for all of this. When he introduced the notion that taxpayers should know who’s making what on the public dime as part of his Common Sense Revolution, it was supposed to be a means of transparency.
Back then, the Tories thought it would shame public sector managers into holding the line on spending.
It did nothing of the sort. Instead, it emboldened civil servants to become modern Oliver Twists.
They took one look at what the guy in the next office was making and they went en masse to their bosses and asked for a raise.
Without the discipline of the private sector, they all got it.
Public sector managers see no reason to hold the line. If they don’t have shareholders and a board of directors demanding they turn a profit — or at least hold the line on expenses — they see no reason to do so.
You want a $100,000 pay hike? Sure. While you’re at it, take $200,000.
What do they care? Taxpayers in this province are notoriously docile when it comes to coughing up more cash.
We’re Ontarians — so tax us. Health levy? HST? Eco fees? No problem. We may grumble at first, but then we re-elect the government that gouged us in the first place.
Wynne and her finance minister, Charles Sousa, keep telling us they’re going to get tough, hold the line, freeze wages.
Not a chance.
The total number of employees on the Sunshine List increased by 13,474 in 2014 to 111,438.
Does that sound like holding the line to you?
