TORONTO - King Tut isn't the only one raking in the big bucks at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Matthew Teitelbaum, chief executive officer of the AGO, pulled in $981,000 in salary and bonuses last year, putting him at number 3 on the list of Ontario public sector workers making more than $100,000 annually.
The sunshine list grew by another 10,000 to 63,761 people in 2009 -- or just under five per cent of the 1.2 million Ontario residents working in the broader public sector. That includes civil servants, nurses, doctors, teachers and municipal employees such as police and firefighters.
As usual, executives at the province's big electrical utilities topped the list.
Jim Hankinson, the former president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation, remained in first place with a compensation package of more than $2.1 million. Parkinson's replacement, Tom Mitchell, who took over last July, was number 2 with salary and bonus totalling just over $1 million.
Unlike most people on the sunshine list, Teitelbaum wasn't paid only by taxpayers but in part by donations to the Art Gallery of Ontario, which announced two weeks ago that is was laying off 37 staffers.
Laura Formusa, president and CEO of Hydro One, was fourth at $977,000. Over 10,000 workers at Hydro One and OPG made the sunshine list, but the utilities say it was overtime that put many of those above $100,000.
There are also about 700 elementary and high school vice-principals on the sunshine list, 2,700 principals, more than 350 teachers, and nearly 400 school and school board superintendents.
There were thousands of police officers in the $100k club, including 1,300 in Toronto, 500 in Peel, 250 in York, and more than 150 each in Waterloo and Windsor.
There are many Ontario Provincial Police officers on the list, but they aren't broken out from the rest of the 2,350 employees of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services who also made over $100,000.
More than 700 workers at the troubled Toronto Transit Commission also made the sunshine list.
The $100,000 limit was set 15 years ago, and government officials say the list would be trimmed by nearly 70 per cent if it was raised to $129,000 to account for inflation.
However, Premier Dalton McGuinty said he's not in favour of raising the limit.
"I think $100,000 is still a lot of money from an Ontario family's perspective," McGuinty said. "I think they appreciate the transparency associated with this."
McGuinty also defended the number of public sector workers earning more than $100,000, saying the percentage of private sector workers earning over that figure is considerably higher than the public sector.
"We've got to pay people what's fair," he said.
The annual list has grown to four volumes -- each as thick as a phone book, and hospital officials were well represented near the top.
The list shows the former deputy minister of government services, Michelle Diemanuele, pulled in nearly $800,000 after leaving her $365,000 a year job with the government to become CEO of Credit Valley Hospital for $410,000.
Several hospital bosses made more than $800,000, including Robert Bell of Toronto's University Health Network, who pulled in $830,000, and Clifford Nordal of St. Joseph's Health Care in London, who was paid $821,0000. Many other hospital executives were close behind.
Hospitals are closing beds and laying off nurses to balance their budgets, but hospital executives keep seeing their salaries rise, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
"The salaries of these top executives are out of whack, and I think that most families would agree," said Horwath. "Does the premier think it's fair to be closing emergency rooms while health dollars are spent on seven figure salaries?"
It wasn't the province that set salaries at hospitals but local hospital boards of directors -- who should remember the government announced a two-year freeze on public sector salaries in last week's budget, said McGuinty.
"This is a matter between hospital boards and their employees," he said.
"I know (Horwath) would want to join me in encouraging all those people who work on our hospital boards to be very careful when it comes to making determinations about those salary levels, what is appropriate and what is inappropriate."
Health Minister Deb Matthews admitted people in her hometown of London think hospital executives are paid too much.
"They would say that we're paying too much, especially in light of some of the other tough decisions that we're making," said Matthews. "I think hospital boards ought to listen very closely to what people in their communities are saying."
There were also more than 1,500 registered nurses on the sunshine list.
The government used the budget to announce an immediate freeze on non-unionized workers and managers in the public sector and said it would also cap compensation packages for unionized public sector workers for two years after their current contracts expire.
It hopes to save about $750 million by freezing the salaries of more than one million workers, although the opposition parties said there are too many loopholes in the wage freeze, especially for senior managers who get performance pay.
