It must be a tough job dealing with the likes of raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt. From Denis Langlois at the Owen Sound Sun Times:
Grey Bruce Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hazel Lynn and medical student Katrina Piggott [who no doubt earns a lot less] at the health unit building. Photo via Owen Sound Sun Times.
The local medical officer of health earned $319,288 last year, 5% more than she received in 2011, according to the latest sunshine list released by the province Thursday.
More than 225 people in Grey-Bruce are on the 2012 Public Sector Disclosure, which is made up of civil servants who received more than $100,000.
Seventy-six employees with the Bluewater District School Board made the list, along with 34 from Grey Bruce Health Services, 31 from the Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board, 15 from Grey County, 14 from the County of Bruce and four from the Grey Bruce Health Unit.
The list includes local MPPs, justices, Crown attorneys, registered nurses, teachers and firefighters.
Grey Bruce Health Services CEO Maureen Solecki was the second-highest paid local public servant on the list, receiving a salary of $266,437 in 2012. Local Justice Julia Morneau received $264,832 last year….”
The Bovine reported back in November of 2009 about Dr. Hazel Lynn’s pay raise of $100,000. That brought her salary at the time to $275,000. Note that this story says it’s the fourth straight year she’s been the highest paid. At the time, it really did seem like the dramatic pay raise could have something to do with the added stress she might be under on account of the Michael Schmidt case. Even the government doesn’t go around handing out $100,000 pay raises to already highly paid civil servants for no reason. So perhaps if it hadn’t been for Michael Schmidt and his raw milk ruckus, someone else would now be the highest paid public servant in Grey Bruce.
Of course the bigger picture is that the cost of Dr. Hazel Lynn’s “raise” ($400,000 over four years, and counting) is very probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much public money has been spent (some would say wasted) prosecuting the raw milk issue in Ontario.
The Bovine 
Working 6 days per week for 52 weeks = 312 working days per year.
$319,288 divided by 312 = $1023 per day.
Obscene, especially under all manner of current circumstances!!!
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has criticized the amount paid to Toronto’s medical officer of health. From Now Magazine: http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=186477
“Rob Ford also criticized the doctor, calling McKeown’s six-figure salary “an embarrassment.” The mayor said the medical officer of health makes over $300,000 a year and promised to “look into it.”
“Why are we paying this person x number of dollars?” Ford asked.
The mayor appears to have overestimated McKeown’s salary however. According to the so-called Sunshine List released earlier this year, McKeown took home $294,302.61 in 2011, plus $10,885 in benefits….”
According to a story in the GTA section of the March 29, 2013 edition of the Toronto Star, Mayor Ford was paid $172,803 in 2012 and former premier Dalton McGuinty’s salary was $209,000. (pg GT1). – just by way of comparison.
All these insane salaries would be immediately addressed by a new tax bracketing system with a logarithmically increasing rates which start taking place at $100k. To everyone who says $100k is not a lot of money, consider the average “income” (not “salary”) in Ottawa a few years ago was recorded at about $40k. That’s AVERAGE in a city with high tech workers and government employees everywhere. How many people have to be below that margin for that to be called the average.
It honestly seems to me that all the opposition against raising income taxes are putting forth the argument that “they deserve to keep what they earned”. I can understand that from the perspective of someone who works 10+ hours a day to bring home $30k a year, but everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. My 24 hours are the same as the Ontario Power Authority CEO who claimed $1.7 million in 2012. (Aside: how does that make any sense in this age of austerity when hydro prices are through the roof already.) However, honestly, most people making that argument have no hope in hell of breaking the $200k barrier in their lifetime, so why all the opposition?
I suggest they eliminate corporate income tax, introduce exit taxes to discourage corporate exodus, introduce higher dividend and other investment income taxes, restrict banking interest rates to low levels, introduce further government savings bonds with special exemption for government-induced renewable terms in times of need, eliminate consumption taxes, and levy the majority of tax overhead from personal-income proportionate taxation which would discourage any rational thinking decision maker from feeling like it’s at all a good idea to throw millions of dollars at one person for a job that could in all likelihood be done just as well by a horde of other people if they were but given the same opportunity. Stimulate business growth, stimulate research and development, protect our trade secrets from foreign copyright infringement, stimulate foreign interest in our goods and services. Create an economy where people are free to be as productive as they choose to be without being told “you can’t do that”. Create an economy where money flows easily from person to person to acquire and consume the fruits of our own labours instead of losing half of it back to taxes, half what remains to the lenders who hold hostage the wealth of the country, and half what remains again to the profit margins of foreign competitors who care nothing for the quality standards that we uphold here at home.
If we accept the notion that the state has a right to impose a tax on us in the first place, regardless of amount, we the people don’t have veto power. If we don’t have veto power, we are principally enslaved. We being enslaved, the state has the power to slowly ratchet thing till eventually the people say “enough”. The moral hazard is compromising on principle in the first place. And that is the political rhetoric these days. Just listen to them… We need to be compromising. Ron Paul is an extremist because he won’t compromise and meet in the middle…