Ontario's top earners on the 2025 Sunshine List led by former OPG CEO
· Toronto Sun
OTTAWA — He may not be the CEO anymore, but he’s still Ontario’s top-earning public servant.
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Kenneth Hartwick, who stepped down as president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) in late 2024, once again tops the latest Ontario Sunshine List — having earned $1.9 million in salary in 2025, plus $3,582.20 in taxable benefits.
Listed as a “special advisor” to the crown corporation tasked with generating roughly half of the province’s electricity, Hartwick earned more than current OPG president and CEO Nicolle Butcher, who made $1.6 million in salary and benefits last year.
“Retroactive payments, collective bargaining outcomes and an additional pay period for multiple organizations were all unique factors contributing to salary increases in 2025,” Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney said in a statement Friday.
Despite arguments that public sector salary disclosures are anachronistic, as six-figure salaries are far more common in 2026 than when the list was established three decades ago, 404,922 names appear on the 2025 list — a nearly 7% increase from the 377,666 public servants who appeared on the 2024 list.
According to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, $100,000 in 1996 — the year the Sunshine List was established — is worth around $188,309 in today’s money.
Bulk employed by municipalities
Mulroney noted more than “50% of this year’s growth was driven by municipalities, which includes local police and fire services whose work continues to protect Ontario communities.”
As a cabinet minister, Mulroney earned $213,939.75 in 2025.
More than half of the list, she said, are employees of public service organizations like hospital, boards of health, and school boards.
The list also covers elected officials, crown corporations and publicly-funded entities like universities, colleges and not-for-profits who receive more than $1 million in public funding.
OPG execs feature heavily
Ontario Power Generation employees round out the province’s top five earners, with OPG’s chief nuclear officer Steve Gregoris earning $1.1 million (up from the $919,310.33 last year), chief financial officer Aida Cipolla earning $1.01 million, and chief project officer Suba Sinnathamby earning $981,475.74.
In all, 10,672 OPG employees earned enough to garner a spot on this year’s list.
Health-care executives also featured heavily in the list’s top 20, with University Health Network president and CEO Kevin Smith taking home $939,603 last year, Sick Kids head Ronald Cohn earning $880,013.40, and Hamilton Health Sciences president and CEO Tracey Macarthur earning $773,658.23.
School boards and education workers
The highest-paid Toronto District School Board (TDSB) teacher last year was Gorian Surlan — the Parkdale Collegiate teacher fired in 2021 for wearing “blackface” to school , who earned $256,899.29 last year.
Surlan was ordered reinstated in August 2025 after an arbiter ruled his poorly-thought-out zombie Halloween costume wasn’t racist, and ordered he be paid two years in back wages.
According to the list, 112,654 employees of Ontario school boards earned more than $100,000 in 2025, with 84,510 employed by the TDSB — the province’s largest board — and 44,736 employed by the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
Former TDSB director of education Clayton La Touche, who was fired last December by the board’s provincially appointed supervisor, was the highest-paid TDSB employee in 2025, earning $304,894.41.
His replacement, former associate director Stacey Zucker, earned $291,041.89 in 2025.
Higher learning also came with higher paycheques: 21,992 people with the job title of “professor” appeared on the list, with Western University’s Dean of the Ivey Business School Julian Birkinshaw in the top spot, taking home $656,639.96 last year.
He’s followed closely by University of Toronto chemistry professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik ($649,992.85), Western’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry Dean John Yoo ($632,706.96), and Western Medicine professor Anthony Tang ($624,999.96).
Municipal employees earned big
Earning $308,179.23 last year, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti is the highest-paid municipal politician on the list, followed by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow ($240,349.28), Windsor Mayor Andrew Dilkens ($218,949.11), Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca ($218,544.45), Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward ($214,252.45), and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe ($213,920.80).
Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah was the highest-paid cop in Ontario last year, earning $604,449.04.
He was followed by Peel Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich ($464.574.69), York Chief James Macsween ($455,692.40), Halton Chief Steve Tanner (454.082.62), and Toronto Chief Myron Demkiw ($455,366.68).
The three highest-paid police constables in Ontario were from Toronto — Const. Mariusz Turkot ($366,484.11), Const. Kyriakos Papadopoulos ( $338,746.04), and Const. Greg Hornby ($320,794.02).
Other notable names on the Sunshine List
— Ontario Premier Doug Ford, $269,567.49
— NDP Leader Marit Stiles, $233,334.05
— Auditor General Shelley Spence, $466,588.85
— TTC CEO Mandeep Lali, $288,461.25
— Toronto city manager Paul Johnson, $523,925.37
— Metrolinx president and CEO Michael Lindsay, $327,439.36
— Kids Help Phone president and CEO Katherine Hay, $729,753.93
— OLG president and CEO Alfred Hannay, $691,918.26
— Marcela Carena Lopez, executive director Perimeter Institute For Theoretical Physics, $650,000