King staff bask in the ‘Sunshine’ club

April 2, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Mark Pavilons
In another year of record-breaking remuneration for Ontario’s civil servants, the numbers of employees earning $100,000 or more annually continues to rise across York Region.
The salaries and taxable benefits of employees in the Ontario Public Service and the broader public sector who were paid $100,000 or more in 2012 were released last week. The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act requires public sector organizations to disclose, by March 31, the name, position, salary and taxable benefits of their employees paid $100,000 or more in the previous calendar year.
The top wage earner in King is CAO Susan Plamondon, who earned $175,994 last year, along with $1,383.50 in benefits.
Next was Brian Grubbe, chief building official, who pulled in $136,195.06, and $592.13 in benefits.
Third was Robert Flindall, director of engineering and public works, who earned $129,355.92 and $1,034.85 in benefits.
Planning director Stephen Kitchen, finance director and treasurer Jeff Schmidt and clerk Kathryn Smyth, all earned $111,127.99.
Joseph Laplante, deputy director of engineering and development, was next, earning $110,038.09.
The legislation applies to the provincial government, Crown agencies and corporations; Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One and their subsidiaries; publicly funded organizations such as hospitals, boards of public health, municipalities, school boards, universities and colleges; and organizations that receive transfer payments from the province of at least $1 million or 10 per cent of their gross revenues, provided the transfer amount was $120,000 or more.
Overall, the total number of employees disclosed under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act increased by 11% or 8,823 employees from 79,589 in 2011 to 88,412 in 2012, which is consistent with the increase experienced in 2011.
The Municipalities and Services sector accounted for 38% of the increase or about 3,300 employees and is not subject to the government’s compensation framework.
In the 2012 budget, the government extended the compensation restraint for executives at hospitals, colleges, universities, school boards and agencies until the deficit is eliminated. The government also extended the pay freeze for MPPs for two years – for a total of five years.
The province also posts, on a separate website, the expense information for cabinet ministers, political staff, Ontario government senior management, appointees and senior executives at Ontario’s 22 largest agencies.