Yorkregion.com - Editorials - Sunshine list grows amid dark clouds
Sunshine list grows amid dark clouds
Editorials
Apr 03, 2008 07:00 AM
The province released its list of public servants earning more than $100,000 in 2007 and the number has grown by 8,000. There are now more than 42,000 people in the public service pulling in more than $100,000. The list has grown by 110 per cent since the Dalton McGuinty Liberals took power.
These are numbers that should make you take notice. One has to worry public employees’ salaries are getting out of whack compared to those in the private sector who pay them.
It is not just the fat cats in the city of Toronto in the $100,000-a-year club. There are plenty right here in York Region.
You can peruse the list and see workers of every stripe making $100,000, $150,000 or even $200,000.
The powers that be sloughed off this big jump in the list as attributable to inflation. But according to Ontario government figures, Ontario’s inflation rate for the past two years has been in the 1.8 per cent range.
Yet salaries, unionized, administrative and management, continue to grow at a much higher rate and not just for front-line workers.
Are politicians more concerned about the pocketbooks of their workers than taxpayers, pushing this list into the stratosphere?
There are so many people on the public payroll, they have become an important constituency. They and their families have a vested interest in seeing jobs maintained and salaries rise.
But in times of economic uncertainty, should these hikes continue and this list keep growing?
Workers in the private sector feel the pain in tough times with hiring and wage freezes, or even more drastic measures. Should the province not have a plan in place, too?
A cap on salaries at a reasonable rate or limit on how many people in each agency earn $100,000, based on the agency’s size, number of employees or budget, makes sense. Based on the sunshine list, there does not appear to be much control over payroll costs.
Will we ever again have a government that says enough is enough?
Next time they say the government’s proposed tax cuts will only benefit the rich, we’ll know who they are talking about — people who work for the government. They’re called public servants because they’re supposed to be working for us. But clearly, we work for them.