A report on Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs said the country's top business execs pocketed $13.2 million, on average, in 2023.
The Top 100 were paid 210 times more than the average worker’s wage that year, the progressive think tank Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reported.
By the first working day of the year, Jan. 2 at 10:54 a.m., the 100 CEOs had already earned, on average, $62,661 — the equivalent of the average Canadian worker's salary for the entire year.
The CCPA said it has been tracking CEO pay since 2007, pushing for fairer taxes as one tool to reduce the extreme pay gap between CEOs and the average worker.
Over the past 25 years, the think tank said that gap has been growing. In 1998, the ratio of CEO salary to worker salary was 104 times. It was closer to 150 times in 2009 and now is over 210 times, the think tank says.
Where are all these well-compensated CEOs based?
The CCPA report lists CEOs with companies with head offices based in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax, Hamilton, Ottawa, and a few in York Region, Cambridge, Waterloo and Guelph.
The CEO at the top of the list is Patrick Dovigi, 45, the chief executive of Vaughan-based GFL Environmental Inc. His waste management company has a large curbside pickup contract with the City of Toronto, as well as York Region municipalities, including Newmarket and Aurora.
Other top spots are held by the CEOs of Loblaw, auto parts giant Magna and Restaurant Brands International, which operates Tim Hortons, Burger King and other quick-service restaurants.
Below are the CEOs from Toronto-area companies who made the CCPA's Top 100 list.
(The CEOs' total compensation includes salary, share based awards, option based awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation, pension value, and all other compensation. Figures marked with an asterisk* indicate the CEO was paid in U.S. dollars and CCPA converted to Canadian.)
Patrick Dovigi — GFL Environmental Inc. (Vaughan) $68,464,987
Joshua Kobza* — Restaurant Brands International Inc. $39,097,490
Seetarama S. Kotagiri* — Magna International Inc. (Aurora) $22,888,213
Per Bank — George Weston Ltd. (a holding company with a majority stake in Loblaw) $22,137,979
Roy Gori — Manulife Financial Corp. $19,382,615
D. Mark Bristow* — Barrick Gold Corp. $17,183,322
Robert A. Mionis* — Celestica Inc. $16,972,367
David McKay — Royal Bank of Canada $16,125,877
Charles Brindamour — Intact Financial Corp. $15,210,030
Steve Hasker* — Thomson Reuters Corp. $13,598,209
Bharat Masrani — Toronto Dominion Bank $13,383,751
Tony Staffieri — Rogers Communications Inc. $12,975,476
J.G. Reid — Russel Metals (Mississauga) $12,873,095
Connor Teskey* — Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. $12,183,604
Galen Weston — George Weston Ltd. $11,762,145
Robert M. Le Blanc* — Onex Corp. $11,473,800
Victor Dodig — Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce $11,206,250
Kevin D. Strain — Sun Life Financial Inc. $10,649,521
Derek Neldner — Royal Bank of Canada $10,512,250
Ammar AlJoundi* — Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. $10,467,242
Allan MacDonald — Superior Plus Corp. $10,284,137
J. Paul Rollinson* — Kinross Gold Corp. $10,184,543
Richard Maltsbarger — Pet Valu Holdings Ltd. (Markham) $10,009,828
Max Rangel* — Spin Master Corp. $9,955,905
Kurt MacAlpine — CI Financial Corp. $9,730,884
Scott Thomson — Bank of Nova Scotia $9,380,802
D. Scott Patterson* — FirstService Corp. $8,953,100
Worthing F. Jackman* — Waste Connections Inc. (Vaughan) $8,499,413
Brian W. Kingston* — Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. $8,223,014
Sean Boyd* — Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. $8,109,501
Bruce Flatt* — Brookfield Corp. $8,105,549
T. Michael Milker — Intact Financial Corp. $7,956,292
Phil Witherington — Manulife Financial Corp. $7,795,853
Ronald J. Mittelstaedt* — Waste Connections Inc. (Vaughan) $7,767,594
Jake Lawrence — Bank of Nova Scotia $7,374,561
Rod Antal* — SSR Mining Inc. $7,133,982
Dani Reiss — Canada Goose Holdings Inc. $6,967,423
