Premier Doug Ford’s office grew in size and salaries in 2025, according to the latest edition of the Sunshine List, which shows 50 top employees earned a combined $8.1 million last year.
On Friday, Ontario released its list of annual salary disclosures, revealing that more than 400,000 publicly paid employees in the province earned over $100,000 last year.
The list shows 50 individuals in the premier’s office, from Ford’s executive assistant to his chief of staff, who earned an average of $162,000 in 2025. Those salaries pushed total compensation to over $8 million for the first time in provincial history.
The sunshine list salaries in the premier’s office also grew by 10.9 per cent compared to 2024, well above the average rate of inflation of 2.1 per cent in 2025.
The number of staff who made the Sunshine List also grew by 6.4 per cent from 2024.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles slammed the premier for having “the biggest, most expensive cabinet and office in Ontario history.”
“Everyday Ontarians aren’t getting 10 percent salary increases. If they’re lucky enough to even be working during this Premier’s jobs disaster, they’re juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet or struggling to afford their rent and their groceries,” Stiles said in a statement.
“When he got elected, Ford promised Ontarians that the party with taxpayer dollars was over, turns out, he was just getting started.”
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The Ontario Liberals said the amount demonstrates a lack of financial discipline, especially given the $13.8 billion deficit the Ford government revealed in its 2026 budget.
“Doug Ford’s Conservatives talk about fiscal prudence and transparency, that’s not how the Premier runs his own office,” said Liberal Finance Critic Stephanie Bowman.
“While the President of the Treasury Board brags about a hiring freeze, they have expanded the Premier’s Office. They are wasting money during an affordability crisis.”
While a spokesperson for the premier’s office, who also appeared on the Sunshine List, did not respond to a request for comment, a government minister recently laid out the justification for high salaries in Ford’s office.
In November, during a financial estimates committee hearing at Queen’s Park, Ontario’s Minister of Red Tape Reduction, Andrea Khanjin, defended the growing spending.
“Given the amount of work that’s being done in light of the unprecedented economic time, you’re going to want really good, high-quality staff and for them to be compensated accordingly,” Khanjin said. “These are individuals who do not work 9-5, they are not unionized, and so we rely on them to do the heavy lifting.”
Khanjin also said staff are paid to “work at a moment’s notice.”
“Whether there is an imminent economic meeting that’s happening between the Premier and a governor or the Premier and the Prime Minister. The work that’s laid out by these individuals is 24/7 type of work,” she added.
The growth — which has been steady since Ford took office in 2019 –- also eclipses what former Premier Kathleen Wynne spent on her office.
In 2019, the Progressive Conservatives’ first full year in office, 20 employees made the Sunshine List in the premier’s office, costing taxpayers $2.9 million in total compensation.
By 2023, the number of Ford’s direct employees on the Sunshine List more than doubled to 48, with a combined compensation of $6.9 million.
In 2017, Wynne’s last full year in office, 18 people working in the premier’s office made the Sunshine List, with a combined pay of $2.8 million, compared with the $8.1 million paid out by Ford in 2025.
Critics have also suggested that the government is hiding the true cost of the premier’s office salaries.
In the government’s 2025 spending estimates, the province set aside just $2 million for salaries and wages in the Premier’s Office – 75 per cent lower than what was reported in the Sunshine List.
At the time, the government reported a complement of 72 staff.
The NDP and Liberals have highlighted the discrepancy.
“Government books show the Premier’s Office has cost $2,326,800 since 2019. The sunshine list tells a different story — about $8.1 million this year alone, while staffing has tripled since Ford became Premier,” Bowman said.
“I have repeatedly asked the Minister of Finance and the President of the Treasury Board to disclose the true cost of staffing the Premier’s Office. They have refused every time.”
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