Ontario Sunshine List revealed: Here’s the top public sector employees who earned over $100K in 2025

Ontario released its 2025 Sunshine List Friday, the annual list that documents public sector employees with salaries of over $100,000, with former Ontario Power Generation President and CEO Kenneth Hartwick topping it yet again with a salary of just over $1.9 million.

Employees of the electricity Crown corporation held the top five spots on the list and seven of the top ten, with all but one coming in at a salary over $1 million. Current President and CEO Nicolle Butcher came in second with a salary of almost $1.6 million.

Hartwick also took top spot last year with a salary of just over $2 million.

University Health Network President and CEO Kevin Smith came in sixth on the list, making $939,603 last year. SickKids President and CEO Ronald Cohn was seventh, earning $880,013.

You can see the top 100 earners at the bottom of this story.

Premier, mayor get a raise

Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, made $269,567 last year. That’s up from the $208,974 he made a year prior, according to the 2024 list.

There are also 50 people from the premier’s office on the list this year, up from 47 the year prior.

Two of them made more than Ford: his former chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, with a salary of $340,717, and Travis Kann, Ford’s former principal secretary and head of Ontario-United States Engagement, with a salary of $299,356. Kann, who is listed on the Sunshine List under the first name Mark, is now Ford’s chief of staff.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow also got a raise. She earned $240,349 last year, up from $225,093 in 2024.

Chow was the second highest paid mayor in the province last year. The top spot was taken by Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, who earned $308,179.

The number of public sector employees making over $100,000 has grown, coming in at 404,922 this year compared to 377,881 last year.

The salary amount to get on the list has not changed since 1996. When adjusted for inflation, that amount of money would be equal to about $185,000 in 2025 dollars.

Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney said in a statement accompanying the Sunshine List’s release that things like retroactive payments and collective bargaining outcomes were “unique factors” that contributed to salary increases.

“Over 50 per cent of this year’s growth was driven by municipalities, which includes local police and fire services whose work continues to protect Ontario communities,” she said.

“Of the total list, more than half is comprised of public service organizations like school boards, hospitals and public boards of health, which in large part is comprised of nurses and teachers.”

Highest police chief salary goes to Peel

Peel police Chief Nishan Duraiappah made more than any other police chief in the province last year. He made $604,449 in 2025.

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw was the second-highest earner, with a salary of $445,366 last year.

All seven Toronto police officers that were arrested and charged in a sweeping corruption probe by York Regional Police this year were also on the list. Their 2025 salaries ranged from just over $130,000 to nearly $180,000. The year prior, all but one, Const. Elias Mouawad, were on the list.

Dave Bulmer, President and CEO of AMAPCEO, the union that represents most of the Ontario government’s public servants, said the Sunshine List gets “less meaningful” every year.

“[The Sunshine List’s] original intent was to capture those who were the senior most executives from the public sector earning salaries that are taxpayer supported,” he said.

Bulmer said that because the list hasn’t been adjusted for inflation, it has ballooned in size to include workers that aren’t representative of the group of people it was originally created to identify.

“A hundred thousand dollars is barely a living wage in what is the expense of the GTA,” he said, noting that most of the people named in the list reside within the Greater Toronto Area.