Humber College president Christopher Whitaker was the highest-paid college staff member in all of Ontario last year, according to the province’s Sunshine List released earlier this week.
Whitaker earned $432,958 in 2021 which is more than double Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s salary of $208,974.
News of the high earners at Humber and across Ontario generated strong reaction.
“The fact that Chris Whitaker makes $440,000, If you compare it to other kinds of public sector companies, he’s actually quite far down the list. But on the other hand, Chris Whitaker is the highest-paid college president,” said Humber College Faculty Union President Milos Vasic.
“And I think we have to ask ourselves: What has Chris been doing for us?” he said.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation posted a news release criticizing the Ontario government after the number of employees on the provincial list grew by 38,536 since 2020.
“Many Ontario taxpayers have seen their pay cut or businesses closed, but meanwhile government employees were busy getting raises,” said Ontario CTF Director Jay Goldberg.
“As we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, we’re clearly not all in this together,” he said in the release.
The Sunshine List shows the public sector employees who made more than $100,000 over the year.
In all, 736 Humber College employees were included in the 244,000 names on the list.
Professors dominated the Humber category, comprising 489 of the 736 employees listed and representing 66 per cent of the college’s workers.
“It’s kind of shocking to see so many people from one organization are on this list, but a lot of those salaries are from profs. That’s regulated by the collective agreement, so that’s a standard thing,” said Vasic.
The highest-paid Humber professor on the list earned $149.466, while the lowest earned $100,130.