City of Sarnia’s ‘sunshine list’ count decreases, again

The number of City of Sarnia employees making $100,000 or more shrank for a second straight year in 2022.

That trend isn’t expected to necessarily continue, city officials said.

The latest Public Sector Salary Disclosure or “sunshine list” data, shows there were 246 names on the list in 2022, down nine from a year earlier, and down 18 from 2020, city officials said in a report.

The decreases in 2021 and 2022 were attributed primarily to retirements among senior city officials, said Sarnia corporate services general manager David Stockdale.

There were nine fewer list-makers — six police, one fire official, and two other city officials — overall in 2022, compared to a year earlier, Sarnia treasurer Jane Qi’s report says.

The previous year, the numbers for police and firefighter reductions on the list were reversed — six fire, one police official.

Salaries for first-class firefighters and police constables are more than $100,000, Stockdale said. When they retire, fourth-class replacements make about 60 per cent of that wage when they start, he said.

“So, that would account for that” decrease, he said.

There’s nothing to indicate the larger-than-usual number of retirements at the top of the pay grid will continue in the short-term, said police chief Derek Davis.

“I don’t see any bubbles, any particular direction either way,” he said.

Retirements in policing tend to happen 30 to 35 years after a person is hired, he said.

“We’ll always have a handful of retirements every year, a handful of hires every year; and then if there are any abnormal years, we adjust accordingly.”

The demographics of city employment weren’t immediately available, but more retirements are expected generally in the years to come in Ontario as Baby Boomers continue to exit the workforce, Stockdale said, noting a provincial announcement was made Thursday to expand a program to help people find jobs in the region that includes Sarnia.

“We’re at a pretty significant labor shortage across the province,” Stockdale said.

Total compensation to $100,000-plus earners from the City of Sarnia also fell in 2022, about $500,000, to $31.8 million.

Average compensation among list makers employed by the city was $129.00, up from about $126,500 in 2021.

“The numbers do ebb and flow because there are a lot of environmental factors contributing to when people come and leave,” Stockdale said.

The number of employees in the city increased in 2023, meanwhile, to 680 full-time equivalents, from about 664 in 2022.

About three quarters of those gains were via police, city ​​budget documents show.

Contracts with police, fire, and CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) unionized workers at the city all expire at the end of 2023, Stockdale and Davis said.

Sunshine list representation among police and firefighters won’t change much from wage increases since first-class firefighters and constables already make more than $100,000, Stockdale said.

With inflation, $100,000 today is worth about $160,000 in 1996 dollars, when the act first came into effect, Davis said.

Meanwhile, Sarnia’s attrition rate — the percentage per year of people retiring or finding jobs elsewhere — is around four per cent and in line with what’s typically seen at other Ontario municipalities, Stockdale said.

“We are certainly well staffed,” he said.

“I think we’re doing well at recruiting.”

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Notable City of Sarnia salaries in 2022:

Source: City of Sarnia