Ottawa's public sector salary landscape came into sharp focus this week as Ontario released its annual Sunshine List, the provincial disclosure of all public employees earning $100,000 or more. Published on Friday, the 2025 list offers a revealing look at where taxpayer dollars are going — and who's taking home the biggest paycheques in the capital.
What Is the Sunshine List?
Ontario's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act requires organizations that receive provincial funding to publish the names, positions, and salaries of employees earning $100,000 or more annually. The list has been published every year since 1996 and covers hospitals, school boards, universities, municipalities, and provincial agencies. It's colloquially known as the "Sunshine List" — and it reliably generates plenty of heat every spring.
Mayor Sutcliffe Is Far From the Top
If you were expecting Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to dominate the rankings, think again. Sutcliffe's salary sits well below the city's highest-paid public employees, which is fairly typical — Ottawa's top earners tend to be senior administrators, hospital executives, and university officials rather than elected officials.
Mayors in Ontario municipalities are salaried positions set by council, and while they come with a generous compensation package, they rarely compete with the compensation levels seen in healthcare leadership or university administration.
Where the Big Salaries Are
Historically, Ottawa's highest public sector salaries have been concentrated in a handful of sectors:
- Healthcare: Senior executives and specialized physicians at The Ottawa Hospital, CHEO, and Montfort Hospital routinely appear near the top of the list. Hospital CEOs and medical officers of health command significant compensation given the complexity and scale of the organizations they run.
- Post-secondary education: University of Ottawa and Carleton University senior leadership, including presidents, provosts, and deans, are consistent Sunshine List fixtures at the higher salary tiers.
- City of Ottawa: The city's chief administrative officer and senior directors round out the upper end, reflecting the management of one of Canada's largest municipal governments by geography.
- School boards: Ottawa's four major school boards — OCDSB, OCSB, CECCE, and CEPEO — contribute dozens of entries, from superintendents to senior directors.
Why It Matters
For Ottawa residents, the Sunshine List is more than an annual curiosity — it's a tool for public accountability. With property taxes, provincial transfers, and federal funding all flowing into these organizations, knowing how compensation is structured at the top helps inform conversations about public spending priorities.
The list also reflects real labour market pressures. Recruiting and retaining top talent in healthcare, education, and municipal governance in a competitive market — especially in a city where the federal government and private sector tech firms are also vying for skilled professionals — means salaries have trended upward year over year.
The Bigger Picture
The 2025 Sunshine List arrives at a time when many Ottawa residents are feeling the pinch of rising costs. Public sector salary transparency helps ensure those conversations are grounded in facts rather than assumptions — and that the people running the city's most essential institutions are being compensated in a way that's both competitive and defensible to taxpayers.
You can search the full Ontario Sunshine List database at the provincial government's website.
Source: CBC Ottawa via Ontario Public Sector Salary Disclosure 2025
