public sector salaries database: see who's on the list of b.c.'s 100 highest-paid public servants
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“if i had a million dollars, i’d be rich,” the barenaked ladies sang in their folksy 1992 hit about how they would share all that money with someone they loved.
after three decades and significant inflation growth, the top earners in b.c.’s public sector now make near or above $1 million a year, according to the vancouver sun’s 12th edition of its popular public sector salaries database. (you can search the database here.)
the database contains the names and wages of nearly 170,000 workers who made more than $75,000 in 2023-24 at about 100 public sector agencies, including the provincial government, city halls, universities and colleges, school districts, health authorities, crown corporations, municipal police departments, and other agencies that use taxpayers’ money to fund their payrolls.
dominating the top-100 highest salaries list was powerex, the crown corporation that markets b.c. hydro’s surplus electricity, where 24 executives each took home between $500,000 and $1.4 million a year.
the provincial health services authority, which oversees a network of specialized medical services, has 52 employees on the top-100 list who earned between $500,000 and $740,000 each, including oncologists, radiologists and executives.
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there are also some surprising salaries in health care. the largest paycheque in island health went to a registered nurse who made $431,000 — $35,000 more than the health authority’s president.
the nurse works in a specialized department, and salaries this high are typically due to overtime and “shifts worked at premium rates of pay” in keeping with union contracts, said dominic abassi, island health’s media manager.
the b.c. nurses’ union has raised concerns about a shortage of nurses in the province, which has led to staff filling the void by working extra-long hours.
to address this, island health recruited 800 new nurses in 2024 and implemented a “fatigue policy” that includes guaranteed rest and recovery time to reduce injury and sickness, abassi said.
“this is achieved through ensuring staff are working 16 hours or less in a 24-hour period and reducing the number of consecutive days of work,” he said.
“island health is also reviewing and improving scheduling practices to better understand where employees are working inordinate amounts of shifts or shifts at premium rates of pay beyond the expected norm.”
island health is not the only health authority facing this challenge. a st. paul’s hospital registered nurse took home more than $400,000, making him the best-paid person at providence health — earning $30,000 more than president fiona dalton.
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a providence official said this nurse worked in a highly specialized area, and that his compensation was “predominately due to seniority, overtime and provincial contract settlement increases.”
in ninth place on the top-100 list is former surrey city manager vince lalonde, who earned $750,302. the city’s corporate services department said his pay in 2023, the year he retired, was higher than usual due to retirement provisions and unused “entitlements” that had accrued over his 26-year employment.
the municipal employee with the second highest paycheque was also in surrey. donna jones, former general manager of investments and intergovernmental relations, made $627,000 in 2023, before retiring after 45 years with the city.
the total remuneration for city managers, chief administrative officers and other officials can be significant in municipalities across the lower mainland. metro vancouver’s cao collected $675,000, and his counterparts in richmond, north vancouver district, coquitlam and burnaby earned between $412,000 and $500,000.
the fact that most of metro’s 21 municipalities have a well-compensated administration, and many also pay their mayors handsomely, has led for calls to amalgamate some of those cities.
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“we need to do something about the outrageous pay people are making,” former b.c. premier and former vancouver mayor mike harcourt told postmedia’s david carrigg recently.
of b.c.’s 25 post-secondary schools, only ubc cracked the top-100 pay list, with 17 spots. the $1.1-million paycheque collected by dawn jia, ceo of ubc’s investment management trust, made her the fourth highest-paid person in the province. dr. dermot kelleher, dean of ubc’s faculty of medicine and vice-president of health, earned $772,000 and sits in eighth place.
when it comes to the dozen municipal police agencies in metro vancouver and greater victoria, vancouver police issued the eight most expensive pay stubs.
the top earner was recently retired chief adam palmer. however, a sergeant — one rank above constable — took home $361,000, the same pay as one vpd deputy chief and more money than the other two deputies.
rounding out those at the top of the vpd salary grid were two more sergeants and one staff sergeant who earned $320,000 to $350,000 — higher than the salaries of the police chiefs in surrey, victoria and abbotsford.
in addition, 10 vancouver police constables, whose base pay is typically between $85,000 and $123,000, earned more than $250,000 in 2023 after working extra hours.
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the vpd faces “extraordinary service demands” that can require officers to work on their days off, including protests, major sporting events and concerts, complex investigations, and public safety initiatives in areas such as the granville entertainment district, said sgt. steve addison.
the department now has 100 new officers, fulfilling a campaign pledge made by vancouver mayor ken sim. but addison did not think that would reduce overtime in 2025 or 2026, given upcoming major events such as next year’s fifa world cup.
he added vpd can recover overtime costs from some venues and tour companies. for example, the force was reimbursed for half of the $943,000 in policing costs provided for last year’s three taylor swift concerts.
b.c.’s municipal police agencies have about 33 chiefs and deputies. but only six of those are women, including oak bay chief julie chanin, transit police chief suzanne muir, and fiona wilson, who was a vpd deputy but will become the top cop in victoria this summer.
postmedia paid to determine the gender of the workers listed in the database by submitting their first names to gender-api.com. results with less than a 95 per cent confidence score from api were excluded, so our analysis is based on reliable gender information for two-thirds of the names in the database.
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we found that two-thirds of school district staff are women, largely because so many teachers are female. but women hold only a third of leadership positions that pay at least $250,000 a year.
post-secondary institutions employ roughly the same number of women and men, but only 30 per cent of the 600 top-paying jobs at universities and colleges are held by women.
within crown corporations, the public sector that can produce the highest salaries, women are employed in just over a third of positions that pay $250,000 or more.
the database’s top earners include the male ceos of b.c. hydro, b.c. lottery corp., translink, and b.c. ferries, although two ferry corporation female vice-presidents are also among the most compensated.
worksafebc stands out for having a female ceo. the new ceo of b.c. hydro, starting aug. 1, will be a woman.
in written responses to postmedia, the government’s public sector employers’ council said that while progress still needs to be made, the public service has improved gender equity by expanding flexible work options. that includes making it easier to work from home, full- or part-time.
starting in 2023, government ministries were required to report on gender pay gaps, and on nov. 1 that rule expands to all employers in b.c. with more than 300 staff.
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the education ministry said school districts have had to publicly report gender pay data since 2023, and “this will help individual districts identify gaps.”
in addition, new resources and guides are being distributed now to help school districts “apply an equity lens to their hiring,” the ministry said in an email.
postmedia’s database contains employment data from the 2023-24 fiscal year, with the exception of municipal police, which provided data for the 2023 calendar year. some of the names and positions in the database may be out of date if someone retired or moved jobs, but it provides a recent snapshot in time of public sector payrolls in b.c.
in the database, remuneration includes salary, overtime, bonuses and other one-time payouts or benefits, such as unused vacation time. it does not include expenses. the figures come from publicly available compensation disclosure reports and freedom of information requests.
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