civil

Saturday March 28, 2015

Saturday March 28, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 28, 2015

Ontario’s ‘sunshine list’ tops 100,000 members for first time

Ontario’s taxpayer-funded $100,000 club includes more than 100,000 members for first time ever.

Find out who made what: the Star’s searchable databases

The annual “sunshine list” of six-figures-and-up earners on the provincial public payroll released Friday included 111,440 people in 2014 — 13,644 more than the 97,796 the year before or a 13.9 per cent increase.

That means the equivalent of the population of cities the size of Burlington or Thunder Bay made this year’s tally, which was curated in six volumes spanning 2,491 pages.

As usual, Ontario Power Generation chief executive Tom Mitchell, who runs the nuclear operation, was the province’s highest paid civil servant, taking in $1.555 million last year.

The silver medallist was also from OPG with former chief financial officer Donn Hanbidge, fired after a scathing 2013 auditor general’s report on the electricity utility, receiving $1.208 million, including severance.

Bronze went to University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation’s president and CEO William Moriarty at $937,500.

“The people of Ontario have a right to know how their dollars are being spent. Ontario has the leanest government in Canada while still providing high-quality public services that people can rely on,” Treasury Board President Deb Matthews said in a statement at Queen’s Park.

“Today, we are releasing the 2014 public sector salary disclosure list as part of our government’s commitment to be the most open and transparent government in the country,” said Matthews, who made $165,851.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, whose salary, like all MPPs, has been frozen for seven years, earned $208,974. Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Jim Wilson made $159,266 while NDP Leader Andrea Horwath took home $158,157. (Source: Toronto Star)

Thursday October 5, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 5, 2012

Civil Service Wage Freeze in Ontario

Premier Dalton McGuinty refused to say Thursday if the public-sector wage freeze legislation opposed by the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats will be a confidence vote in his minority Liberal government.

“Without speaking to that particular issue…an integral part of our plan to attack the deficit is to put in place a freeze on public-sector compensation,” McGuinty told the media after his annual agri-food summit.

When reporters pointed out he hadn’t answered the question about whether he would declare the bill a confidence motion, McGuinty admitted he was ducking the issue.

“Yeah I know,” he said. “That was deliberate. Why is this a surprise?”

The Liberals unveiled a draft version of the bill last week to get opposition input on the plan to freeze wages of 481,000 workers in hospitals, colleges, universities, nursing homes and the civil service to help eliminate a deficit projected at $14.8 billion.

The Tories want the government to open labour contracts to impose an immediate pay freeze, and said they can’t vote for a “weak” bill that exempts municipalities, which means police, firefighters and public transit workers will not be covered.

McGuinty rejected the Tory demand to open existing contracts as “a constitutional non-starter,” and said he won’t extend the wage freeze legislation to cover municipalities, who directly employ police and firefighters.

“We have enough challenges with our own fiscal problems,” he said. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Tuesday August 14, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday August 14, 2012

eHealth CEO Greg Reed takes $81,250 bonus

The man brought in to lead eHealth Ontario following a scandal that rocked the Liberal government will get a bonus of about 25 per cent on top of his $329,000 salary this year, while staff at the agency have turned to the courts to get back the bonuses they were promised but denied.

EHealth president and CEO Greg Reed will be paid a bonus of $81,250 this year, agency spokesman Robert Mitchell confirmed Sunday.

The government wants all public sector workers, including doctors, nurses and teachers, to take a two-year wage freeze to help eliminate a $15 billion deficit, and told managers and executives at its agencies to lead by example.

The bonus was “part of a standard employment contract” negotiated between Reed and the eHealth board of directors, Mitchell said.

“Comparatively, his salary is significantly lower than peers at other agencies,” he said.

Reed was not available to comment Sunday, nor was the chair of the eHealth board, Raymond Hession.

The opposition parties called on Health Minister Deb Matthews to cancel Reed’s bonus as she did the bonuses for more than 600 eHealth staff.

“This latest eHealth fiasco is a slap in the face to Ontarians who are being asked to tighten their belts,” NDP health critic France Gelinas said in a release. (Source: Toronto Star)