The Town of Newmarket's CAO tops Ontario's 2020 Sunshine List for public sector employees making more than $100,000 per year in the local municipality.
Jagdeep Sharma, with an annual salary of just under $265,000, leads the list of 186 employees earning $100,000 and more at the Town of Newmarket.
Kathy Kumpula, president of the Newmarket Taxpayers Advocacy Group, said the amount of salaries on the list is "eye watering" and she reiterated her organization's call of the past few years that council should thin the ranks of the municipality's senior management.
"Since our inception, we have felt that there is simply too much management at the town pulling down the high salaries," said Kumpula.
Kumpula believes this position was validated by the REV It Up efficiency review conducted on the town in 2019, which recommends an organizational review.
"When this review came along saying there were more managers than staff, we said, 'great, they are finally going to see the light.' But they haven't done anything," she said.
"Council keeps deferring that recommendation. They don't want to upset people by reorganizing the management, I guess."
All in all, more than 205,000 people across Ontario are on the list, up from 167,000 in the 2019 disclosure and 151,000 the year before that. Newmarket only added one name to the list in 2020.
Almost all of the employees on Newmarket's list are members of Central York Fire Services.
The top five earners in Newmarket in 2020 are:
- CAO Sharma Jagdeep - $264,840
- Commissioners Ian McDougall and Peter Noehammer - $208,064 each
- Commissioner of corporate services, Esther Armchuk - 205,344
- Fire Chief Ian Laing - $184,809
York Region has 1,437 names on the 2020 Sunshine List, with CAO Bruce MacGregor topping the list. The top five earners are:
- CAO Bruce MacGregor - $320,645, plus $13,187 in benefits
- Medical officer of health Karim Kurji - $319,474, plus $12,573 in benefits
- Associate medical officer of health John Gould - $288,172
- Associate medical officer of health Fareen Karachiwalla - $273,389
- General manager of social services Cordelia Abankwa - $266,066
Southlake Regional Health Centre has 661 names on the list for 2020, up from 439 people in 2019. CEO Arden Krystal took the top spot this year after receiving a nearly $25,000 raise since last year's disclosure. The raise comes during a year that the hospital announced it would lay off 97 registered nurses and faces an operating deficit. Southlake notes that, so far, these layoffs are being done without involuntary dismissals via " vacancies, retirements and normal turnover."
The top five earners for the hospital are:
- CEO Arden Krystal - $468,729, plus $10,948 in benefits
- Pathologist Shahdea Handy - $358,769
- Pathologist Julie Schatz - $350,310
- Pathologist Charles Ye - $350,309
- Pathologist Margaret Misztal - $349,314
-This article has been edited due to a calculation error in the Sunshine List data for Arden Krystal's salary.
