Ontario's $100K club has 10,000 more members

The annual "sunshine list" of people earningmore than$100,000 in Ontario's public sector is out, and it's longer than ever, with10,000 more names than last year.

More than 63,000 people broke the$100,000 barrier in provincial government departments, Crown agencies, town and city government, hospitals, colleges, school boards, electric utilities and other organizations that get public funding from the province.

At the top of the list are two CEOs ofthe samepower company, eachcollecting more than $1 million in 2009, the CBC's Mike Crawley reports from Queen's Park.

Ontario Power Generation's former chief, Jim Hankinson, who left in July,was paid$2.15 million.

His successor, Tom Mitchell, gotmore than$1 million plus some $31,000 in taxable benefits.Before his promotion, he was OPG's chief nuclear officer.

In third place was the CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Matthew Teitelbaum, at about $981,000 including benefits.

Laura Formusa, CEO of Hydro One, was close behind at about $975,000.

There was also big money in health care.Eleven hospital CEOs in the province earned more than $600,000.

$100K 'still a lot of money,' McGuinty says

By contrast, Premier Dalton McGuinty earned just under $209,000.

This year's list fills four volumes, each the size of a phone book.

As the figures suggest, thepower industrywas a good bet if you wanted to make more than $100,000 a year.

More than 10,000 people did so at Ontario Power, which generates electricity, and Hydro One, which distributes it.

Although$100,000 isn't what it was when the list was first published in the mid-1990s, there is no appetite at Queen's Park for raising the bar.

Premier Dalton McGuinty nixed the idea when reporters asked him about itWednesday morning.

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

Neither the Conservatives nor the NDP wants to see the cutoff raised either.

But NDP leader Andrea Horwath thinks something else should change.

As things stand, the list gives total figures for each person's taxable pay and benefits but does not break them down to show what portion was a performance bonus, for example, or the cost of a company car.

"I think the sunshine list should be made very, very clear,"Horwath said.

"People should be able to see what the salary is, what the bonus is and perks are of all of the top executives and all of the people, frankly, that make that list. Taxpayers should be able to see exactly who's making what and in what kind of categories."

As CBC News reported on Tuesday, performance pay for public sector workers can still go up over the next 2 years, despite the salary freeze announced in last week's budget.

Salary database

Organizations that receive public funding from the government of Ontario are required to release the names, positions, salaries and total taxable benefits of employees with an annual salary of $100,000 or more.

Thissearchable database allows readers to search the government's disclosure for 2009 by position, name or salary. Or, use the dropdown menu to search by employer.