Huntsville releases 2021 sunshine list

The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act 1996 requires organizations that receive public funding from
the Province of Ontario to disclose the names, positions, salaries and taxable benefits of
employees paid $100,000 or more in the previous calendar year.

In 2021, the Town employees who made more than $100,000 were:

  • Denise Corry, CAO: $164,292.61 plus $2,663.04 tax benefit
  • Steve Hernen, (former) director of operations and protective services: $139,019.81 plus $1,429.44 tax benefit
  • Kirstin Maxwell, director of development services: $126,392.51 plus $1,463.04 tax benefit
  • Julia McKenzie, director of financial services/treasurer: $126,392.51 plus $263.04 tax benefit
  • Rob Collins, (former) fire chief: $124,970.50 plus $263.04 tax benefit
  • Tanya Calleja, director of legislative services/municipal clerk: $122,620.21 plus $363.04 tax benefit
  • Simone Babineau, director of community services: $119,382.01 plus $263.04 tax benefit
  • Gary Monahan, deputy fire chief: $105,340.71 plus $2,920.92 tax benefit
  • Lisa Smith, manager of human resources: $105,340.71 plus $388.04 tax benefit
  • Kevin Boucock, manager of operations: $104,240.91 plus $263.04 tax benefit
  • David Tremblay, Huntsville Public Library CEO/chief librarian: $103,583.99 plus $263.04 tax benefit
  • Richard Clark, manager of planning: $100,318.91 plus $263.04 tax benefit
  • Chris Nagy, chief building official: $100,318.91 plus $263.04 tax benefit

Previous years’ reporting for the province can be found on the Ministry of Finance website here.

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8 Comments

  1. Brian Tapley says:

    It is like Mr. Earl says.
    If you work in the public sector you gain some things not available to individuals in many cases.
    First, your job is generally more secure.
    Second, you get a lot of benefits, health, retirement, travel allowances etc.
    No problem with this at all.
    BUT
    By working in the “public” sector you are indeed being employed by all “the tax payers”. Thus your salary and benefits should be available to those tax payers, in other words “public”.
    If you don’t like this then you should work in the private sector of the economy. Here nothing about your pay is available to anyone but you, your employer and CRA.
    Public sector jobs need to be done, and in most all cases the workers do a good job, as efficiently as they can. What is the harm in letting their “effective employer” (the public) know what they paid them? There should be noting to be embarrassed about or to need to hide. If there is then maybe the job itself needs to be re-evaluated to see if it is necessary.
    Indeed such disclosure provides a bit of a guideline to the private sector with regard to what is paid for similar jobs there. It should work to everyone’s gain and eliminate the guesswork and distrust that secrets always bring.

  2. Leslie Talbot says:

    Well said Mr Earl 👏

  3. Brenda Begg says:

    John R. Earl: You present an excellent argument. I agree; taxpayers need to know where our money is going. Thank you for submitting your response. I’m now ‘on the fence’. BTW: I don’t hold a bureaucratic position.

  4. John R. Earl says:

    Some of the comments so far state ” come on get rid of it “, “incite anger and resentment” , ” is it any benefit to anyone to publish people’s salaries ? ” Maybe these comments are coming from income earners from others holding bureaucratic positions. These sunshine club salaries seem to be quite relevant in our society , mostly in government, whether it be municipal, provincial or federal, institutional, and including crown corporations, all of which are being paid for from our taxes. In my opinion taxpayers have every right to know what these bureaucrats are being paid, its our money. Its not so much the individuals on how much money they receive, its what each category of the position is being paid, however we as taxpayers in my opinion have every right to know where and how much money is being spent. If those individuals out there feel uncomfortable about having this published then I’m sorry You are not working for a private corporation, You are working for us taxpayers , we have the absolute right to know where our tax money is going.
    The amounts being paid in recent times seem to be very, very exorbitant. Its usually the same bureaucrats and sometimes elected officials that will reply that we have to pay these amounts , because thats what other comparable jurisdictions are paying. They say that if we don’t pay these bureaucrats the going salaries they will go elsewhere where the money is, or they say ” you get what you pay for, if you want qualified employees you have to pay for them.” or they may say if we don’t pay, the private sector will employ them at a better price. This to me is getting totally out of hand.
    The average household income of families in Muskoka hasn’t been published lately, but there are many, many earning incomes that fall below the poverty line, even those earning $ 50,000.00 and less make up for many . Unfortunately these high paying money figures are not going to change until we elect politicians that have the will power to do something about it. The Health care system, the Education system, any other government agency in my opinion is out of control with how are tax money is being spent. The cry of how we don’t have enough of this or that, some of those people don’t seem to be able ” to see the forest for the trees”, Money doesn’t grow on trees, it comes from our taxpayers pockets.
    It seems like the rich are getting richer, while the poor are struggling and getting poorer. Are we on a slippery slope ? I hope not, we need strong politicians to help correct this.
    We have just witnessed the revolting scenes of the Freedom Movement, lets hope that there isn’t a larger revolt from Canadians that are fed up with paying high taxes. Of note, on April 1 ,2022 the carbon tax is adding 11 cents per litre on gasoline, and other diesel/oil products at the pump.
    Also of note there is a Provincial election this summer and a Municipal Election on October 24th, 2022.
    Each and everyone of us can help in making changes by electing people with strong will power and that have the guts to work and serve us taxpayers responsibly.

  5. Brenda Begg says:

    Oh my! Publishing peoples’ yearly salaries. What is the intention? ????

    Somehow, in view of the fact that Putin, who is undeniably an egocentric, maniacal loose canon, immoral and ruthless dictator without ethics or compassion, who is invading (at WAR with – do I dare say ‘WAR’’?) Ukraine and, he is threatening the Western world -for goodness sakes! Is it any benefit to anyone to publish people’s salaries? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Was it ever? Let’s put things in perspective.

  6. Em Arde says:

    I agree with Henk. These days such salaries are more than reasonable for people with these types of positions and responsibilities, relative to salaries in the corporate world. Publishing this list does little more than incite anger and resentment in those who do not understand that.

  7. Sequoia Henry says:

    Wanna know why taxes are going up? Because these office folk deserve more than a million dollars a year come on…

  8. Henk Rietveld says:

    The sunshine list is an anachronism! It was first brought out in the mid 1990’s (remember those lovely Mike Harris years), but has never been adjusted for inflation. Initially, it was a thinly veiled shaming of highly paid civil servants, and it continues to have that taint.
    Get rid of it! It’s totally irrelevant.