Woolwich and Wellesley townships contributed 15 members to a list of people on the public dime who earned more than $100,000 in 2020.
Across Ontario, the list – which includes doctors, nurses, teachers, police and firefighters in addition to civil servants – includes 205,607, up 23 per cent from 166,997 in 2019.
The provincially mandated salary information, known as the sunshine list, was released last week. Ontario Power Generation head Kenneth Hartwick was paid $1.2 million. OPG also provided the second-highest salary on the list, Dominque Miniere’s $1,131,767 as president of the nuclear division, followed by chief operations officer Sean Granville at $901,606 and chief projects officer Michael Martelli at $850,332.
Rounding out the top five was Kevin Smith, president and CEO of the University Health Network, who was paid $844,992.
In Woolwich, chief administrative officer David Brenneman was the highest paid of township employees, taking in $157,289.05. Director of finance/treasurer Richard Petherick received $121,717.97, as did clerk Val Hummel. Recreation director Ann McArthur received $122,174.69. Director of development services Mark Pomponi was paid $121,719.00. Director of infrastructure Jared Puppe received $114,463.15. Fire chief Dale Martin got $113,539.24, while chief building official David Heuchert received $105,360.29 and manager of operations Carter Maguire was paid $106,189.92
In Wellesley, chief administrative officer Rik Louwagie was paid $145,435.46. Clerk Grace Kosch made $107,263.32, and now-retired treasurer Theresa Bisch was paid $107,163.32. Chief building official Darryl Denny, director of planning Geoff Vanderbaaren and fire chief Paul Redman each received $107,128.90.
The Region of Waterloo has 416 employees on the list, up from 364 the year before, while the police contributed 672 names, down from 689 in 2019, led by Chief Bryan Larkin at $330,811.23.
When first introduced in 1996, the list contained 4,319 names. Inflation is responsible for much of the increase: adjusted for inflation, $100,000 then is now the equivalent of about $167,000 today.
In 2020, the average Ontario worker made about $55,000. That includes overtime pay, and assumes no weeks off, amounting to a little more than half of the sunshine list threshold.
