Jim Thibert
JOHN ROBBINS / Bullet News
The Town of Fort Erie’s list of $100,000 earners has grown by one – unofficially at least.
While you won’t see Jim Thibert’s name anywhere on the so-called Sunshine List released by the provincial government last week, the general manager of the Fort Erie Economic Development and Tourism Corporation says he has no problem with telling people what he earns.
“$133,000,” Thibert says without hesitation.
“I don’t have a problem telling people I’m more than qualified, overworked and underpaid.”
Every March 31, the Ontario Ministry of Finance publishes a list of the names and salaries of thousands of public-sector employees earning six figures or more.
The document, which has come to be known as the Sunshine List, is a requirement of the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act brought in by the Conservative government of former premier Mike Harris in the mid 1990s.
This year, the list included the names of more than 71,000 hospital executives, university professors, municipal engineers, firefighters and police, to name but a few of the jobs covered by the act.
Last week, the Town of Fort Erie reported nine people on its $100,000-club.
Topping the list was the town’s chief administrative officer Harry Schlange, who earned $141,290 in 2010, followed by Rino Mostacci, director of community and development services, who was paid $134,661.
Also on the list were Doug Campbell, operations division manager ($102,454); Helen Chamberlain, town treasurer ($121,448); Larry Coplen, fire chief ($100,510); Carolyn Kett, town clerk ($100,372); Heather Salter, town solicitor ($127,844); Ron Tripp, director of infrastructure services ($129,344); and Russ Wilson, general manager of the Community Gaming Development Corp, ($101,883).
Thibert joined the Fort Erie EDTC, the arm’s length corporation of the town responsible for attracting and retaining businesses, in 2001.
For several years, Thibert’s name and salary appeared on the list as he was considered a town employee seconded to the EDTC.
When the organization restructured, the town stopped including Thibert’s name and salary on the information it reports annually to the Ministry of Finance for inclusion on the Sunshine List.
The last time Thibert’s name appeared on the Sunshine List was the 2008 edition, which reported income earned for 2007. In that year, Thibert reportedly made $115,387.
That his name hasn’t appeared on the list since is a product of the rather complex rules associated with the Public Sector Salary Disclosure, which has in recent years given rise to complaints that the list has loopholes which cause it to be an unreliable benchmarking tool and unfair to those whose salaries are published when those of their peers may not be.
For example, while Thibert’s salary was a matter of public record and included on the Sunshine List in 2006, the salary of his then-colleague Patrick Gedge, former general manager of the Niagara Economic Development Corporation, was not.
When challenged by local media to explain why the agency had not been reporting salaries of $100,000 or more to the province, NEDC officials at that time could point to a legal opinion they had obtained stating the agency did not meet the criteria set out in the act.
However, the board later decided, in the interest of public transparency, to begin voluntarily filing with the ministry.
Every year since, NEDC has appeared on the list, including the one released last week that shows Gedge, who resigned his position with the agency last summer, earned $150,817 in 2010.
Six Niagara municipalities – Regional Niagara, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Welland, Fort Erie and Port Colborne – have economic development offices, which are organized as either municipal departments or standalone agencies.
Only three of Niagara’s senior economic development officers are on the 2010 Sunshine List.
In addition to NEDC’s Gedge, David Oakes, director of economic development and tourism services for St. Catharines, and Serge Felicetti, director of business development for Niagara Falls, are both on the list.
In 2010, Oakes earned $124,152 while Felicetti made $116,060.
Like Thibert, Dan Degazio, manager of the Welland Development Corporation, and Stephen Thompson, Port Colborne’s manager of economic development, tourism and marketing, are not on the Sunshine List.
Degazio and Thompson are considered city employees and therefore subject to the act. However, their salaries in 2010 were less than the $100,000 threshold for public disclosure.
The act is applied inconsistently in other sectors of the public service, most notably in the hospital sector.
Many Ontario hospitals disclose the names and salaries of their medical chiefs of staff, but some do not.
The Niagara Health System is one of them.
During the 11 years since the NHS was created from the merger of eight hospitals, there have been three people who have held the chief of staff position, two of them on an interim basis.
The first – the late  Dr. Heime Geffen – was the only one whose name and salary ever appeared on the Sunshine List.
Geffen was succeded by Dr. William Shragge, whose salary was never reported on the list. Nor has that of Dr. Joanna Hope, who has served as interim chief of staff since Shragge’s departure in early 2009.
NHS officials have said they did not, and legally could not, report the amount of money paid to Shragge and Hope because neither could be considered NHS employees.
Instead, they were paid like self-employed contractors.
The act only requires public sector employers to report information contained on T4 tax slips. No T4 slip, no Sunshine listing.
Last week, Hope did something her predecessor was unwilling to do during his seven year tenure.
After Bullet News questioned why Hope had been left off the list, Hope gave permission for hospital officials to publicly release her salary – $300,000 in 2010.
That won her words of praise from Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, a longtime advocate of greater transparency and accountability in government.
However, Craitor said he still believes disclosure shouldn’t be a matter of personal choice.
“I congratulate her for doing so,†said Craitor. “But I don’t think there should be a differentiation between contract and employee. It shouldn’t matter how you are paid, if it’s public money and it’s over $100,000 it should be reported.â€
Craitor renewed his call to have the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act amended to close what he sees as a “loophole†that brings into question the accuracy and fairness of the reporting process.
“The legislation has to be changed,†said Craitor. “It has to be even more transparent.â€
