N.S. 'sunshine list' released of province’s highest paid public sector workers

Nova Scotia's 'sunshine list' is released Nova Scotians got a picture Monday of some of the province's highest paid public sector workers. CTV's Jonathan MacInnis reports.

Some of Nova Scotia’s highest paid public sector workers were revealed on Monday.

The Public Sector Compensation Report, often referred to as the "sunshine list," is out and shows every public sector employee making $100,000 or more.

Some of the groups include the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, which has more than 40 employees taking home $100,000 or more, the Halifax Regional Centre for Education has almost 400, at Dalhousie University there are more than 1,200 employees making the list and Nova Scotia Health has almost 1,900.

Nova Scotia Health has taken issue with this list in the past, making it clear that this compensation is not a base salary and often includes a lot of overtime worked particularly by nurses.

“The frustration is just the dozens and dozens if not hundreds of examples of administrators in the health-care system taking home a heck of a lot of money,” says Jay Goldberg of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “There’s a very different question when you’re talking about frontline service workers and behind-the-scenes administrators, or bureaucrats we might call them.”

In a statement sent to CTV News Monday afternoon, Nova Scotia's Department of Finance said: “Public Sector Compensation Disclosure improves transparency and provides taxpayers with more information about government spending. It also improves accountability for organizations that receive funding from provincial taxpayers.”

The list is the result of the Public Sector Disclosure Act and has been released annually since 2012 within six months of the end of the fiscal year.