Ontario’s 2025 Sunshine List is out, and it once again puts a spotlight on the province’s highest-paid public sector employees. Released Friday, the annual disclosure tracks public employees who earned more than $100,000, and this year’s list was led yet again by former Ontario Power Generation president and CEO Kenneth Hartwick, who earned just over $1.9 million.
The latest release quickly grabbed attention because of the sheer concentration of top earners at Ontario Power Generation. Employees of the electricity Crown corporation claimed the top five spots on the list and seven of the top 10 overall. Even more striking, all but one of those top 10 salaries came in above the $1 million mark, underlining just how dominant OPG remains at the very top of Ontario’s public-sector pay rankings.
Kenneth Hartwick tops Ontario Sunshine List again
Kenneth Hartwick, the former president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation, took the number one spot once again with a salary of just over $1.9 million. Hartwick also ranked first last year, when his salary came in at just over $2 million, showing that OPG leadership has continued to dominate the highest end of the Sunshine List year after year.
Right behind Hartwick was current Ontario Power Generation president and CEO Nicolle Butcher, who earned almost $1.6 million. The back-to-back presence of Hartwick and Butcher at the top of the rankings reinforces how heavily the province’s energy sector shapes the public conversation around executive compensation in Ontario.
For readers who want to explore the broader disclosure records, the official salary database is available through the Government of Ontario public sector salary disclosure page.
OPG takes top five spots and seven of the top 10
One of the biggest stories in this year’s release is not just who ranked first, but how thoroughly Ontario Power Generation dominated the upper end of the list. OPG employees held the top five spots and seven of the top 10 positions. That level of concentration is rare and makes the utility giant the clear focal point of the 2025 Sunshine List.
Nearly every salary in that top group also crossed the million-dollar threshold. With all but one of the top 10 earners making more than $1 million, the gap between top executives and the broader public workforce remains impossible to ignore. It also helps explain why the Sunshine List continues to generate strong political and public debate every year.
Healthcare leaders also rank among top earners
Outside the energy sector, major healthcare executives also placed high on the 2025 list. University Health Network president and CEO Kevin Smith ranked sixth, earning $939,603. SickKids president and CEO Ronald Cohn came in seventh with earnings of $880,013.
These figures show that while OPG dominated the very top, healthcare leadership remains one of the most highly compensated areas in Ontario’s broader public sector. Running major hospital networks and pediatric healthcare institutions involves enormous operational responsibility, and those pay packages continue to place hospital executives near the top of the province’s disclosure list.
Doug Ford’s salary also draws attention
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also appeared in the broader salary conversation, earning $269,567 last year. While that figure is far below the million-dollar compensation reported for the top Sunshine List earners, it still gives readers an important point of comparison when looking at how executive salaries in Crown corporations and major institutions stack up against elected political leadership.
Why salaries increased in 2025
The province also offered more context on why the list continues to grow and why some compensation figures have jumped. Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney said factors such as retroactive payments and collective bargaining outcomes were “unique factors” that contributed to salary increases this year.
That explanation matters because it suggests the latest figures do not reflect only permanent base salary growth. In some cases, employees may have appeared with sharply higher compensation because delayed payments, negotiated settlements, or contract outcomes were recognized in this reporting period. That can make annual earnings look much larger in a single year, even when the increase is not entirely due to a long-term pay raise.
Municipal workers drove more than half of the growth
According to Mulroney’s statement, more than 50 per cent of this year’s growth on the Sunshine List was driven by municipalities, including local police and fire services. That detail is one of the most important takeaways from the 2025 release because it shows the list is expanding not only because of top executives, but also because of broader compensation pressure across frontline public services.
Police and fire roles often include overtime, shift premiums, negotiated wage increases, and specialized duties, all of which can push annual compensation above the Sunshine List threshold. That means the growing size of the list reflects deeper structural trends in Ontario’s public workforce, not just headline-grabbing executive pay.
Additional reporting from CBC Toronto also highlighted that municipalities were central to this year’s increase, especially through local police and fire services.
Teachers, nurses and public health workers make up much of the list
Mulroney also noted that more than half of the total Sunshine List is made up of public service organizations such as school boards, hospitals, and public boards of health. In practical terms, that means a large share of the names on the list are not CEOs or agency heads, but teachers, nurses, and other essential public sector workers.
That point is crucial for understanding the list in full. While million-dollar salaries dominate headlines, the majority of Sunshine List entries come from workers in education, healthcare, and frontline public services. As inflation, labor shortages, contract renewals, and wage settlements continue to reshape pay across these sectors, more employees are crossing the $100,000 disclosure threshold.
What the 2025 Ontario Sunshine List really shows
The 2025 Ontario Sunshine List tells two stories at once. First, it highlights the continued dominance of Ontario Power Generation at the top, with Kenneth Hartwick again leading the rankings, Nicolle Butcher close behind, OPG taking the top five spots, and seven of the top 10 positions going to the Crown corporation. Second, it shows how broader public sector compensation is shifting, with municipalities accounting for more than half the growth and teachers, nurses, hospitals, school boards, and public health organizations making up much of the overall list.
That is why the Sunshine List remains such a powerful public document. It is not only a record of the province’s top earners, but also a wider snapshot of wage growth, labor pressure, public-service staffing realities, and the changing economics of government-funded work in Ontario. With million-dollar executive salaries once again leading the headlines and essential service workers continuing to expand the list’s base, the 2025 release offers one of the clearest views yet into how Ontario’s public compensation landscape is evolving.
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