McGuinty defends high salaries

Premier Dalton McGuinty was on the defensive Wednesday about big salaries paid to executives at Ontario hospitals, even before the government released the annual sunshine list of everyone in the public sector being paid more than $100,000 a year.

Hospitals are closing beds and laying off nurses to balance their budgets, but hospital executives saw their salaries rise by 36 per cent between 2003, when McGuinty was first elected, and 2008, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told the legislature.

"Does the premier think it's fair to be closing emergency rooms while health dollars are spent on seven figure salaries," Horwath asked during question period.

It wasn't the province that set salaries at hospitals but local hospital boards of directors -- who should remember the government announced a two-year freeze on public sector salaries in last week's budget, said McGuinty.

"This is a matter between hospital boards and their employees," he said.

"I know [Horwath] would want to join me in encouraging all those people who work on our hospital boards to be very careful when it comes to making determinations about those salary levels, what is appropriate and what is inappropriate."

The government used the budget to announce an immediate freeze on non-unionized workers and managers in the public sector and said it would also cap compensation packages for unionized public sector workers for two years after their current contracts expire.

It hopes to save about $750 million by freezing the salaries of more than one million workers, although the opposition parties said there are too many loopholes in the wage freeze, especially for senior managers who get performance pay.

Executives at the province's hydro companies, pension plans and hospitals usually top the annual sunshine list, which last year was three volumes, each as thick as a big-city phone book.

The list, which was scheduled to be released Wednesday afternoon, includes provincial civil servants and everyone in the broader public sector from nurses and teachers to firefighters and police.

The sunshine list grew by 26 per cent last year, with 53,500 public sector workers being paid more than $100,000 11,000 more than in 2007.

Even though the $100,000 limit was set 15 years ago, McGuinty said it should not be raised.

"I think $100,000 is still a lot of money from an Ontario family's perspective," McGuinty said. "I think they appreciate the transparency associated with this."

McGuinty also defended the number of public sector workers earning more than $100,000, saying the percentage of private sector workers earning over that figure is considerably higher than the public sector.

"We've got to pay people what's fair," he said.