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The Ford administration is facing calls for intervention and overhaul compensation at provincial transport agency Metrolinx, after the agency paid a 44% increase in the number of vice presidents in a year.
Annual salary disclosures tracking the number of civil servants who received $100,000 or more showed that Metrolinx’s title last year was in the unit of “Vice President” and up to 82 people a year ago.
Last year, the average salary for the Vice President Metrolinx was about $243,000. In 2023, it’s slightly below $237,000.
A total of 118 people with vice presidents have titles appear on the 2024 Sunshine List. If both make $100,000 or a former employee’s compensation package in 2024, it may include those who leave and their replacement.
In the 2024 rankings, Metrolinx’s vice president is in charge of Hamilton LRT, another third vice president in charge of Hurontario LRT and Finch West LRT.
The organization’s vice president and its growing salary in 2024, when provincial transport agencies once again failed to open any new projects.
As the cost of bus agencies grows, neither Eglinton Crosstown LRT nor Finch West LRT missed the open dates previously advertised.
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“How many vice presidents are actually needed to not deliver the projects that Ontario people need?” said Catherine Fife, an Ontario NDP financial critic.
“People would think that these vice presidents must reach measurable things or benchmarks to keep them employed and receive such high compensation.”
The latest sunshine list figures released last Friday are the first time that former Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster has entered the province’s top five earners.
Last year, the version – who left Royal in December after a turbulent term plagued by delays in the open light rail project – made $883,990.63.
He also received $13,826.58 in taxable benefits, including vehicle allowance, despite the fact that the car has not been driven yet.
Michael Lindsay of Ontario Infrastructure took over the interim head of Metrolinx. Fife said the new leadership could be a chance to reset the top of the agency.
“It’s definitely a chance for Metrolinx to have a chance to read the room,” she said. “But I think unless the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, the Transport Minister, any minister will at least try to hold them accountable and really create transparency.”
Metrolinx did not address issues regarding wage increases in a statement sent to Global News.
“We are building the largest transit expansion in North American history,” the agency said.
Overall, Metrolinx staff on the Sunshine List increased.
The $100,000 annual figure disclosed through the Sunshine List settled in 1996 in a law requiring all public organizations to list employees who manufacture that number or more. The value of $100,000 from 1996 to 2024 is about $180,000.
Continuous governments have refused to update this figure, which is still higher than the median household income in Ontario.
The government said Metrolix’s total on the Sunshine List increased to 2024, a LEAP year, and a leap year and union spending due to the repeal of Bill 124.
To adjust for both one-offs, the agency will still see a 22% increase in employee numbers on the Sunshine List.
Fife said Metrolinx’s salary is something the province should step in.
“It’s really a problem with the length of the weapons in which there is little oversight and accountability, and its executive compensation and bureaucracy have exploded,” she said.
“The government seems to be content to continue doing this.”
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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