With a salary of $358,585 in 2018, Northern Ontario School of Medicine founding dean Dr. Roger Strasser was the top earner in the post-secondary education sector in Greater Sudbury in 2018.
That's according to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act. Nicknamed the “Sunshine List,” the document lists all public sector workers who were paid $100,000 or more in a given year.
Strasser, who steps down as the dean of the medical school at the end of June this year, also earned the same amount in both 2016 and 2017.
He came to Canada from Australia to lead NOSM through its creation, and also stayed on through its opening in 2005 and its first years of operation. Strasser has often been one of the top-paid public sector workers in Greater Sudbury.
Dr. Sarita Verma has been appointed NOSM's new dean effective July 1.
The medical school's vice-dean, academic, Catherine Cervin, earned $248,007 in 2018.
Behind Strasser, the second-highest earner in this sector in Greater Sudbury is Laurentian University interim president Pierre Zundel, who earned $300,079 in 2018. That's up from his 2017 salary of $246,224.
Zundel was given the interim president role partway through 2017, when former Laurentian president Dominic Giroux left the university to become the CEO of Health Sciences North.
It was revealed earlier this year that Giroux is considered to be on unpaid leave from the university, and can return to Laurentian as a full professor should he leave his position at the hospital.
In February, Laurentian announced that Dr. Robert Haché will become the university's 11th president as of July 1 of this year.
Among the three federated universities on Laurentian's campus, Huntington University president Kevin McCormick earned the most, with a 2018 salary of $250,905. That's up slightly from his 2017 salary of $245,259.
University of Sudbury president Sophie Bouffard, who was hired in her position in 2016, earned $175,956 in 2018, up significantly from her 2017 salary of $149,366. That's a raise of $26,590 in one year.
The now former Thorneloe University president Robert Derrenbacker earned $168,265 in 2018, slightly less than his colleague at Thorneloe, professor Louis L'Allier, who earned $168,917 in the same year.
Derrenbacker was appointed to a new position at Trinity College in Melbourne, Australia in May 2018.
The Rev. Canon Dr. John Gibaut has been appointed the next president of Thorneloe, and will start his new job June 1 of this year.
At the city's colleges, Cambrian College president Bill Best earned $256,230 in 2018 (only slightly higher than his $256,025 2017 earnings).
Collège Boréal president Daniel Giroux earned a similar salary to Best of $258,663 (he earned exactly the same in 2017).
In terms of the number of employees on the Sunshine List, Laurentian University had 425 this year, roughly the same as the 426 it posted last year.
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine had 44 (it had 42 in 2017), Huntington had nine (eight in 2017) Thorneloe had seven (eight in 2017) and the University of Sudbury had 14 (15 in 2017).
Cambrian College had 142 employees on the Sunshine List in 2018 and Collège Boréal had 79. Last year, those numbers were 57 and 34, respectively, but the lower numbers in 2017 related to a five-week-long strike by college faculty.
If you'd like to check out the 2018 Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act list for yourself, visit this website.
