The number of people working for the Greater Sudbury Police who make $100,000 or more rose to 200 in 2017, according to a report reviewed this week by the police services board.
First passed by former Premier Mike Harris in 1996, the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act – informally known as the sunshine list – is an annual report detailing everyone working for provincial and municipal governments who make $100,000 or more. The list includes where the employee works, and how much they took home in salary and related benefits.
In the 22 years since the Act was passed, the list has grown substantially, particularly in recent years. For police, the list had 182 names in 2016, rising by 18 last year. While a detailed breakdown won't be available until the list is formally released (which must occur by March 31 every year), police in Sudbury have 264 police officers of varying ranks, as well as 176 civilian full- and part-time staff.
“Factors that contribute to exceeding the $100,000 threshold include assignments that involve overtime, paid duty, retroactive pay and entitlement to statutory holiday pay,” said the report to the police services board.
The increase from 2016 is largely due to a Senior Officer Civilian contract settlement, which included retroactive pay, the report said. Plus there were several constables who were just below the $100,000 threshold last year and moved over the threshold with increases included in their collective bargaining agreements.
“Most police salaries hover just over the $100,000 range, as the first class constable rate is within $6,000 of $100,000,” the report said. “For most members it takes very little statutory holiday, overtime, municipal policing allowance and/or paid duty time payments to reach the threshold. As a result, most first-class members are now reported on the Public Sector Salary Disclosure.”
Most lower-ranked constables are not at the limit, nor most non-management civilian personnel, the report said.
And there are some cases where officers earned income through private contracts, and those earnings are included as part of the officer’s salary.
“However, in most cases these earnings were not yielded from government sources, but rather private contractor payments,” the report said.
