First-responders nearly half of Ottawa workers on 2022 ‘sunshine list’

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First responders represented nearly half of the City of Ottawa employees who appeared on the provincial “sunshine list” of workers earning $100,000 or more in combined compensation during 2022.

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In a memo to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and councillors, director of human resources services Elizabeth Marland reported that 5,831 city employees and elected officials were on the list released Friday by the Ontario Ministry of Finance.

Of that total, 48 per cent were first responders: 1,657 members of the Ottawa Police Service, 851 with Ottawa Fire Services and 309 with the Ottawa Paramedic Service.

The threshold includes salary and taxable benefits. Marland’s memo said approximately 37 per cent of city employees on the 2022 list had base salaries lower than $100,000, but appeared on the list because of either retroactive payments (including salary increases), shift premiums such as overtime or stand-by, vacation cash-outs, banked overtime cash-outs or salary continuance for workers who left the city’s employ.

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Topping the list of City of Ottawa employees for 2022 was Steve Kanellakos, who resigned as city manager in late November. He was paid $357,113.43 in salary and $8,594.10 in taxable benefits.

Other notables on the list included: deputy police chief Steve Bell ($333,037.36 and $19,388.57 in taxable benefits), who also served as interim chief during the period between the resignation of Peter Sloly in February and the hiring of new chief Eric Stubbs in the fall; Medical Officer of Health Vera Etches ($330,739.66 and $1,063.20); and transportation general manager Renée Amilcar ($330,664.80 and $8,010.33).

Jim Watson, whose tenure as mayor ended with the previous council term in November, received $183,184.94 in salary and $606.36 in taxable benefits.

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Marland’s memo also said that, in addition to municipalities, workers with public-sector employers receiving significant funding from the Ontario government were included in the Public Sector Salary Disclosure List, such as the provincial government itself, Crown agencies, hospitals, public health boards, school boards, universities and colleges, Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation.

An online search focused on Ottawa showed that leading the area in compensation covered by the “sunshine list” in 2022 was Cameron Love, president and chief executive officer of The Ottawa Hospital, with salary of $647,124 and taxable benefits of $15,568.88.

The disclosure threshold of $100,000 has not been adjusted to account for inflation since the provincial Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act was enacted in 1996, Marland wrote in her memo. If it had, she added, it would have increased to $165,113.64, in which only 460 City of Ottawa employees would have been included in 2022.

The list is available on the Ontario Ministry of Finance website, and a paper copy of the City of Ottawa list is available at the city hall service centre, Marland’s memo said.