The growing salaries of our paid, elected officials will come from the pockets of workers and small-business owners; we are not all in this together!

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

“Taxpayers have struggled through two years of revolving government lockdowns, pay cuts, job and business losses and we can’t afford higher taxes to pay for raises for bureaucrats that already receive big six-figure salaries.

We don’t need more bureaucrats with bigger salaries, taxpayers need our government employees to be willing to share in the tough times and take a pay cut.”

Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF)

I am going to start this piece with a harsh fact; not a single federal or provincial government had a reduction in pay during lockdowns. This is according to research from Secondstreet.org.

While many of us have been figuring out how to make ends meet, worrying about whether we are going to have jobs, and dealing with the on-going financial stress of this pandemic, there are a group of Canadians who seem to be benefiting from all of the suffering.

What the pandemic has done is lay bare the divide between the haves and the have nots. It seems that the haves were shielded from financial reality and the taxpayers are now on the hook to pay the growing tab. Do you think it is fair that Canadians who took pay cuts or lost their jobs or businesses are responsible for paying these raises? I have more questions for you, but I want to lay out all the facts first.

So here is the ludicrous thing; a record number of public sector executives making six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries have complained they are not being paid enough for having worked through the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, over half a million federal and provincial government workers benefited from pay raises during the COVID-19 pandemic at the expense of the taxpayer.

These taxpayer-funded executives have complained of a $7,000 pay difference among some employees. Entry-level executives can make up to $132,100 a year, while some higher-level policy analysts get paid up to $140,571.

Undisclosed to many of us, on April 1^st, 2022 senators and MP’s received a scheduled pay raise, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earning an additional $21,604 this year, raising his total salary to $379,404.

We have 338 MP’s here in Canada. These MP’s are out here shaking hands and taking pictures, you would think that just one of them would be willing to take a stand against universal raises. Sorry!  At the height of the pandemic, as the debt ballooned to the $1-trillion mark and beyond, Ottawa assigned new contracts for thousands of its employees — and not a single MP objected. I want you to think about this when they come to you asking for your vote.

I did a little more digging (because I have learned to live in the rabbit hole), and I came across a document called the “Sunshine List.” The Ontario government publishes the income data of employees who earned at least $100,000 in the preceding year from organizations that receive public funding. The “Sunshine List” aims to promote pay transparency in the sector in line with the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act.

What I learned is that the highest-earning public servants last year mostly came from the energy sector. Six of the top ten earners work for Ontario Power Generation:

Kenneth Hartwick, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Power Generation – $1,228,517.00

Dominique Miniere, President, Nuclear, Ontario Power Generation – $1,131,767.04

Sean Granville, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Nuclear Officer, Ontario Power Generation – $901,606.32

Michael Martelli, Chief Projects Officer, Ontario Power Generation – $850,332.27

Kevin Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, University Health Network – $844,992.20

Randy Lockwood, Senior Vice President Pickering, Ontario Power Generation – $818,891.74

Dietmar Reiner, Senior Vice President Nuclear Projects, Ontario Power Generation – $817,862.24

Mark Fuller, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Public Service Pension Board – $797,474.68

Stephen Rigby, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation – $797,308.55

Timothy Rutledge, President and Chief Executive Officer, Unity Health Toronto – $776,412.00

I want to be very clear here; the growing salaries of our paid, elected officials will come from the pockets of workers and small-business owners, many of whom took pay cuts during lockdowns, lost their jobs or were forced to close their doors.

We are not all in this together!