Canada: Ontario shows transparency, releases information on public sector salaries
Ottawa, Mar 24 (IBNS): Ontario government's openness and transparency is evident in releasing the salaries of Ontario Public Service and broader public sector employees who were paid $100,000 or more in 2017, media reports said.
This reportedly is in accordance with The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act (PSSDA) and applies to the provincial government, Crown agencies and corporations, Ontario Power Generation and subsidiaries, publicly funded organizations such as hospitals, municipalities, school boards, universities and colleges, and not-for-profit organizations that receive public funding from Ontario.
PSSDA reportedly requires disclosure each year the names, positions, salaries and total taxable benefits of employees who were paid $100,000 or more in the previous calendar year.
PSSDA was enacted in 1996 and since then disclosure of $100,000 salary threshold, has reportedly neither changed nor has been adjusted to keep up with inflation.
Official reports said that if the salary threshold was adjusted for inflation, it would be $151,929 in today’s dollars, reducing the number of employees included in the compendium by 85 percent.
The annual compendium released by the government can be found in the form of a downloadable, machine-readable format as well as in a sortable, searchable tables on Ontario.ca/salarydisclosure, making it more accessible to the public.
As part Ontario's commitment to openness and transparency, every disclosure dating back to 1996 is reportedly available now in accessible, downloadable, sortable formats on Ontario.ca/salarydisclosure.
“Ontario’s commitment to openness and transparency includes releasing public sector salaries annually. Information is now available in downloadable, machine-readable formats. We will continue to transform government to make it more innovative, more efficient, and more accountable to the people of Ontario,” Eleanor McMahon, President of the Treasury Board said.
Among the criteria for employees to appear in the compendium include: employees progressing in their career to more challenging positions, increase in salary ranges, overtime payments, salary awards, performance payments and payments that may be required on retirement, which may be used to reimburse the employee for unused vacation credits.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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