Gord Nixon
Royal Bank of Canada
$11,851,885
The president and CEO saw an almost six per cent raise in his direct compensation last year. Meanwhile, the bank’s earnings from its investment banking arm, RBC Capital Markets, fell 6.8 per cent. That unit’s co-heads, Doug McGregor and Mark Standish, earned $10.16 million and $10.37 million respectively, down from $12.95 million and $14 million the previous year.
Ed Clark
Toronto-Dominion Bank
$11,426,795
TD head Ed Clark was a close second when it came to total dollars earned. He had a good year: TD share prices soared, the bank saw record earnings and the Caldwell Partners named him outstanding CEO of the year.
Richard Waugh
Bank of Nova Scotia
$10,658,333
In June 2010, the bank’s president and CEO received a 50 per cent raise. A competitive analysis had shown Waugh’s base salary and bonuses sitting well below those of his peers. Not quite rags to riches, but it seems fitting that Waugh was recently presented with an award by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.
Gerry McCaughey
CIBC
$9,913,000
Business writers like to describe McCaughey as bland Melba toast, but it’s unlikely he cares. Last year, the bank’s profits doubled to $2.5 billion, and McCaughey focused on domestic retail banking instead of riskier operations. In thanks, the directors more than tripled his bonus.
William Downe
Bank of Montreal
$9,542,600
The bank’s net income grew by 57 per cent in 2010, and the board declared itself pleased with its president and CEO. A portion of that growth may be due to Downe’s penchant for telling everyone he meets, from cab drivers to journalists, to move their money to BMO.
Donald Guloien
Manulife Financial
$9,291,346
The Big Banks have largely recovered from the turmoil of the past few years; Manulife, however, is trading at 60 per cent below its 2007 high. The company failed to meet its 2010 financial goals and posted a net loss of $391 million. Guloien took over as CEO and president in 2009 after a 28-year plod up the company ladder. In response to those year-end figures, Guloien’s compensation fell, slightly, from $9.66 million in 2009.
Donald Stewart
Sun Life Financial
$8,265,495
After 13 years at the helm of Canada’s third-biggest insurer, Stewart, the longest-serving head of any major Canadian financial institution, is to retire at the end of November. The dour Scot was always wary of risk, but Sun Life’s shares have doubled in value since the company began trading on the TSX in 2000.
Bill Holland
CI Financial
$2,533,000
After 21 years building CI into one of Canada’s largest independent mutual fund companies, with $75 billion in investor assets, Holland left the post of CEO last September to serve as executive chair. Holland believes that the vast majority of CEOs are seriously overpaid. CI’s own top executives share an assistant and have no pension plan. His company shares are worth about $260 million, and he and his wife, Susanne, recently gave $20 million to Bloorview.
Robert Prichard
Board Director
$809,828
The influence of the former CEO of Torstar spans the city. He is a trustee of SickKids Hospital and a director of the Toronto Community Foundation. As president and CEO of Metrolinx until September of last year, he earned $270,187. As a director of George Weston, his $150,000 in fees included a $100,000 retainer and $2,000 for each meeting attended. At Onex his total came to $198,141, and at the Bank of Montreal there was another $100,000 retainer, plus a $4,500 travel fee.
Prem Watsa
Fairfax Financial Holdings
$644,057
Fairfax raked in profits of $1.5 billion (U.S.) in 2008 after Watsa, the firm’s controlling shareholder, moved its portfolio from the treacherous stock market to bonds and cash. In August, Fairfax bought William Ashley. If proven correct in his warnings of a double-dip recession, he can toast his acumen using the finest crystal.
David Peterson
Board Director
$499,187
Directorships seem to come easily to pensioned politicos. Peterson’s appointments include Shoppers Drug Mart (for which he receives $148,234); VersaPay ($128,300); Rogers Communications ($126,180); Franco-Nevada ($40,973); and Industrial Alliance ($55,500). He’s also serving his second three-year term as chancellor of the University of Toronto. The job carries no salary or stipend, but it requires that he attend convocation and gravely shake the hands of 12,500 graduates each year.
THAT”S IT! I’M NOT GOING TO WORK ANYMORE… I’M OCCUPYING TORONTO GOSH DARNIT!!!
November 10, 2011 at 7:17 am | by BG011The people earn these salaries by actually working and not sitting around occupying open spaces and complaining.
November 10, 2011 at 1:16 pm | by lilyMany of us work hard and few of us earn these kinds of salaries. Refer to Plato’s 5:1 ratio, which says the highest salary/wealth of a citizen should be no more than five times that of the lowest salary/wealth of a citizen. And consider how much social good the top of these top-earners are invested in as compared with people working in the public sector providing services to the whole community.
(In book 5 (744d-745a), Plato introduces the principle that in order to avert the possibility of civil strife between rich and poor, which would be otherwise unavoidable, all citizens of the society must be guaranteed a basic minimum of property, and no one ought to be allowed to accumulate total property exceeding five times the original allotment. If someone does accumulate more—”by finding something or being given something, or by money-making, or some other such stroke of luck—let him dedicate the surplus to the city.”)
November 10, 2011 at 7:32 pm | by AliceWhat is more surprising is how low some of the salaries are. For example, Deluce @ Porter Airline only making 200k. Wow, I hope he is getting free beer and wine with that!
November 11, 2011 at 12:25 am | by PedroIf you are planning to include people with salaries are 90,000 or even 150,000 in your list i am not sure if you should title it astronomical salaries and twitt as the Toronto’s 1%. Hardly a person who earns that and might have a family of 4 is a top 1% and there are many people, doctors, architects plumbers trades man who make that or more than that. I think you need to adjust your title or put really high salaries there.
November 11, 2011 at 9:35 am | by kateIf you make over $100,000. a year you better be helping other people. Spread the wealth people. Hey Russell can you buy me a house?
November 11, 2011 at 9:38 am | by LindaAn interesting list, but how about for argument’s sake you tell us the salary required to qualify as part of the world’s top 1%? I suspect most of us are on that list. Occupy some perspective.
November 11, 2011 at 11:34 am | by KTO11This list would have been far more useful displayed on two or three pages at the most, from top earner to bottom earner – why include people making in the 10s of thousands with people earning in the tens of millions? It should have had some reasonable cut-off – say $500,000 per year at least. Now to use this I would have to do a lot of cut and paste…
November 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm | by NicoleOk, sorry, I see I can sort by salary. I have copied and will paste the relevant part. Thanks for doing this.
November 11, 2011 at 12:02 pm | by NicoleLast time I checked, David Miller wasn’t at the City of Toronto anymore..
November 16, 2011 at 3:58 pm | by AvivaI remember a time when the list would inlcude jobs that were not the highest paying salaries but were interesting…
Blue Jays Bat/Ball Boy 25K
Zamboni Driver @ MLG 50K
Barista @ starbucks 30K
etc…
Everyone knows the stronach’s, schwartz’… make the list a bit more interesting…
November 17, 2011 at 3:01 pm | by FrancisXL… and why exactly are they the “ruling” class? They’re wealthy, yes, but aren’t they simply wealthy citizens? Who exactly are they “ruling” over????
November 21, 2011 at 1:54 pm | by Andrea BerryWow, people who worked hard for a living, and it paid off. Better start making fun of them right! Gimme, gimme, gimme! Why them and not me? Because they worked harder, and they are smarter, that’s why. Shit happens. Get over it. Also they do more for charity and those in need in a day than sanctimonious complainers do in their entire lifetimes. The world doesn’t owe you anything, take that lesson and run with it.
December 3, 2011 at 2:01 pm | by Alex@Linda”If you make over $100,000. a year you better be helping other people. Spread the wealth people. Hey Russell can you buy me a house?”
Are you kidding??? After lopping about half of that to taxes, paying $1200/month to daycare, mortgage, utilities, car, other basic expenses, like food. There’s barely anything left over for a night at the movies. Get a grip on reality. 100k means nothing these days.
December 4, 2011 at 1:19 pm | by seraphIf $90k is loaded, I’m afraid. Maybe in Moosonee or 1982 or something. Not Toronto in 2011.
December 9, 2011 at 3:35 pm | by Ignatz