Health, education still top Sunshine List

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Management and staff in the health and education sectors dominate the latest provincial Sunshine List, with Brockville General Hospital employing the region’s top two earners in 2024.

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The Ontario government recently released the 2024 public sector salary disclosure list, the so-called “Sunshine List” of people on the provincial payroll earning more than $100,000.

The top earner in the region for 2024 was a registered nurse, Lise Laframboise, who earned $362,233.41, as well as $667.53 in taxable benefits.

That number is not typical of a registered nurse’s salary, so other factors likely contribute to the figure. Officials at BGH could not immediately be reached for clarification Monday.

Nick Vlacholias, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer for most of last year, was the region’s top earner among people listed as management, making $351,677.40, with $1,608.73 in benefits.

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Vlacholias stepped down in November to accept an executive leadership position as vice-president and chief financial officer at London Health Sciences Centre.

Rounding out the region’s top three earners of 2024 was St. Lawrence College’s president and CEO, Glenn Vollebregt, who made $336,992.10 ($2,911.90).

Dr. Linna Li, who served as medical officer of health at the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit before that entity merged with two others to form the South East Health Unit at the start of this year, earned $329,158.33 ($1,688.52).

Some observers suggest the $100,000 threshold, set decades ago, is no longer relevant in 2025, and local results do point to a tally that has increased as six-digit salaries, one reserved for the managerial class, have become increasingly common.

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In one eye-popping instance, the Upper Canada District School Board, a large public board that covers a vast stretch of Eastern Ontario and employs approximately 4,200 staff, has 1,578 on the latest list, or 37.6 per cent of its workforce.

The smaller Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario, which employs more than 1,500 staffers, has 798 on the list, more than half the total at 53.2 per cent.

Exceptional circumstances had the Upper Canada board’s director of education, Ron Ferguson, as the region’s top Sunshine Lister of 2023, at $344,797.86 ($5,728.01).

In 2024, Ferguson took in $285,258.50 ($2,931.48).

Meanwhile, Vlacholias’s successor as top BGH administrator, Julie Caffin, last year made $268,297.06 ($1,459.51). Before assuming the top job, Caffin was BGH’s senior vice-president, chief nursing and health professionals executive, and chief operating officer.

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There are 201 Brockville General Hospital employees on the latest Sunshine List.

The City of Brockville has 20 municipal staffers on the 2024 Sunshine List, with city manager Sandra MacDonald topping the tally at $199,351.88 ($2,604.55), followed on the salary line item by director of engineering and infrastructure Peter Raabe at $166,327.13 ($1,770.13), and finance director Lynda Ferguson at $165,711 ($2,268.61).

The Brockville Police Service has 37 names on the list. Leading them is Police Chief Mark Noonan with $196,308.52 ($3,841.59), and Deputy Chief Andrew Harvie at $181,105.06 ($1,906.54).

And the Brockville Fire Department has 23 names on the Sunshine List, led by Fire Chief Melanie Jones at $177,406.76 ($970.59) and Captain Craig Mason at $172,558.10 ($1,427.04)

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The United Counties of Leeds and Grenville counts 59 people on the 2024 list. Interim chief administrative officer Alison Tutak tops the list at $182,721.85 ($3,946.52), while her predecessor, the late Ray Callery, earned $170,408.22 ($5,054.01) last year.

Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MPP Steve Clark last year earned $130,094.95, with taxable benefits of $450.74.

The latest Sunshine List can be found online.

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