The province recently released its annual public sector salary disclosure list, better known to you and I as the “Sunshine List,” and not surprisingly the number of people earning more than $100,000 in the province’s public sector has grown compared to 2021.
A total of 266,903 names appear on the list for 2022, and several of them are local.
The “Sunshine List” was first introduced in 1996 by then Premier Mike Harris. The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act compels organizations that receive public funding from the province to report the names, positions and pay of those who make more than $100,000.
On paper, in 1996, this was a good idea.
In 1996, people were outraged by a three cent per litre increase to the price of gas, bringing the per litre price to 63 cents. A detached house in the Beach area of Toronto cost $310,000. The average price of a new vehicle was $18,777. Minimum wage was $6.85 an hour.
In 1996, a $100,000 was a lot of money.
Again, on paper it made sense to release the so-called Sunshine List, as it provided accountability to those organizations using public funding and how it was spent.
In that first year, a total of 4,576 names appeared on the list.
Fast forward to 2023, gas prices are hovering around $1.45 per litre. A detached house in midwestern Ontario averages over $500,000. The average price of a new vehicle is $45,000. And minimum wage is $15.50.
As I mentioned just a few paragraphs ago, 266,903 names are on the 2022 list.
The Sunshine List gives me a lot of mixed feelings.
Personally, I like the idea that those who earn a lot of money – and yes, to most of the population, $100,000 is still a lot of money – who work in the public sector are named. However, there needs to be some tweaking of the list.
I have no issue with those who earn $100,000 if they actually earned it. I am talking about those who work in the health-care field, picking up extra hours because our hospitals are short staffed and are trying to keep emergency rooms open. Or those who work in areas such as water and sewer maintenance, who again are likely working extra hours to make up for staff shortages and are earning overtime pay.
However, I don’t believe that a hard-working nurse or public works employee should be criticized for being on the list for picking up the slack due to staff shortages caused by bad management and lack of succession planning. I think the list should be sorted out into salaried and non-salaried earners, and maybe even go a step further and report the number of hours worked.
By breaking down the money that way, the public would gain a new understanding and appreciation for how hard (or little) some of these big-money earners work.
I understand that some of the jobs on this list are important, but in what world should someone who works for an organization that receives provincial funds be earning more than $1 million, such as Ontario Power Generation employees Kenneth Hartwick ($1.73 million) and Dominque Miniere ($1.7 million) did last year? In what world should a professor at a publicly-funded university or college make more than $500,000?
In what world should the person who drives the ice resurfacing machine at your local hockey rink make over $100,000?
If the Sunshine List teaches us anything, is that it pays to work for the government or an organization that receives government money.
There are critics that say the Sunshine List needs to have a new threshold – the figure often thrown around is $170,000 – however for most of us hard-working people, $100,000 is still a lot of money.
We live in a province where the minimum wage is $15.50 per hour but the living wage for our region is $20.70 per hour, and the majority of homes have a combined after-tax household income of under $100,000.
Perhaps a better suggestion, one that will infuriate unions across the province, is capping what a person can earn in government or at an organization that receives government funding. Or maybe instead of freezing wages for those in certain sectors, like the province has done, we should look at freezing the wages of those who are on the Sunshine List.
Just some food for thought.
In any case, the Sunshine List has become a joke and far from what it was originally meant to accomplish. Instead of holding organizations and governments accountable, it just tells me who should be buying coffee at the next meeting I attend.
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Mike Wilson is the editor of Midwestern Newspapers. Comments and feedback are welcome at mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.
