Psychiatrists dominate top of Thunder Bay's public sector salary disclosure list

THUNDER BAY -- It pays to be a psychiatrist.

Eleven of the top 13 positions on the local sunshine list – the annual public sector salary disclosure of provincial and municipal employees – practice the profession.

In total, 13 psychiatrists topped $300,000 in earnings in 2015, all employed by St. Joseph’s Care Group. The hospital also boasted the top publicly paid salaried earner last year, senior medical director John Haggarty pulling in $367,073.

St. Joseph’s Care Group president and CEO Tracy Buckler was her organization’s 15th-highest paid employee, earning $311,996, a $15,000 drop over 2014.

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre executive vice-president Mark Henderson was the highest paid earner at the hospital, paid $317,109, about $18,000 more than William McCready, who took over as interim president and CEO after Andree Robichaud, last year’s highest local public-sector earner, vacated the position last spring.

Robichaud still made a healthy $178,250 before departing.

Lakehead University president Brian Stevenson was fourth on the list, which displays provincially paid salaries above $100,000, collecting $360,049. Stevenson was the lone non-medical worker to make his way inside Thunder Bay’s top 20 highest paid earners last year.

His salary was decidedly more than his Confederation College counterpart Jim Madder, who was paid $226,923 in 2015, a decrease of $658 over his 2014 salary.

The university saw its number of employees named on the sunshine list jump from 284 to 300 last year, while the college climbed from 77 to 83.

Despite retiring, former city manager Tim Commisso and former finance manager Carol Pollard top this year’s local municipal sunshine list.

Commisso, who stepped down in October, was the highest paid municipal employee in 2015, according to the annual public sector salary disclosure list, released on Thursday. Commisso took home $214,606. Pollard, who retired in January, made $203,878.

The municipal list’s top five is rounded out by Police Chief J.P. Levesque, who made $200,916, deputy chief Andy Hay who made $176,551 and former general manager of community services Michael Smith, who took in $175,836.

All told, 234 City of Thunder Bay employees can be found on the list, seven fewer than on the 2015 sunshine list.

MPPs Bill Mauro and Michael Gravelle, both cabinet ministers, made $165,851 apiece.

Lakehead District School board director Ian MacRae eanred $197,376, while his Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board counterpart Pino Tassone, who made $172,076.

Nishnawbe Aski Police Service Chief Terry Armstrong was paid $181,434. At the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, medical officer of health David Williams earned $315,870, while Janet DeMille, who took over the role after Williams left, was paid $227,752.

More than 1,000 employees working in Thunder Bay made the list, which does not include Hydro One employees. It also does not include government ministry workers who might top the $100,000 mark.