Sunshine List: Who were Waterloo Region and Guelph’s highest paid public sector workers in 2025?

Conestoga College's Waterloo campus is pictured on Sept. 21, 2023. (Dan Lauckner/CTV Kitchener)

Ontario has released its annual list of public sector employees who earned more than $100,000.

The 2025 Sunshine List, published on Friday, includes the names of more than 400,000 people.

The top earner on the list was, once again, Ken Hartwick. The president of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) brought in $1,907,408 last year, followed by OPG’s CEO Nicolle Butcher who earned $1,596,218. The Crown corporation’s Chief Nuclear Officer, Steve Gregoris, had the third highest salary of $1,092,854.84.

According to Caroline Mulroney, the president of Ontario’s treasury board, “retroactive payments, collective bargaining outcomes and an additional pay period for multiple organizations were all unique factors contributing to salary increases in 2025.”

She also said most of the list was made up of “public service organizations like school boards, hospitals and public boards of health, which in large part is comprised of nurses and teachers.”

Local list

There was a new name at the top of this year’s Sunshine List for Waterloo Region and Guelph.

Marcela Carena Lopez, the executive director at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, earned $650,000 in 2025.

A close second was Ronald Gagnon, the president and chief executive officer of the newly-named Waterloo Region Health Network (WRHN). His former title was president and CEO of Grand River Hospital in Kitchener.

John Tibbits rounded out the top three earners in Waterloo Region with a salary of $601,684.32.

The former president of Conestoga College suddenly announced his retirement on Jan. 14, 2026, following several events that brought unwanted attention to the school. Most controversially was Conestoga College’s international student population, which rose 1,579 per cent over a seven-year period, from 763 students in 2014-2015 to 12,808 in 2021-2022, according to a 2024 report from Ontario’s Big City Mayors.

Following the federal government’s cap on international student enrolment, the school cut programs and has gone through several rounds of layoffs.

Tibbits’ salary grew alongside the student population. He earned $494,716 in 2023, according to that year’s Sunshine List. By 2024, it reportedly rose to $636,107, an almost 29 per cent increase year-over-year. His salary dropped to $601,684.32 in 2025.

One outlier on the Sunshine List was jeewan chanicka, the former director of education for the Waterloo Region District School Board who, it should be noted, does not capitalize his first or second name.

chanicka abruptly left the WRDSB in December 2024 but no reason was ever given for his departure.

CTV News questioned the school board about chanicka’s “salary continuance.”

In a statement they said: “Salary continuance is often part of a director’s personal service agreement.”

CTV’s Krista Simpson will have more on chanicka’s departure from the Waterloo Region District School Board next week.