Two top aides to former premier Kathleen Wynne shared almost $1 million in pay and severance last year after the Liberals went down to a crushing defeat to Premier Doug Ford in June’s provincial election, according to the new “Sunshine List” of public sector workers earning over $100,000.

The amount prompted interim Liberal Leader John Fraser to say “reasonable people will think this is an excessive package and want an explanation.”

Fraser said neither he nor the Ontario Liberal Party played any role in “the decisions regarding government salaries or severance packages.”

Former Wynne chief of staff Andrew Bevan, who earned $313,922 in 2017, saw his total compensation jump to $552,667 in 2018, while deputy chief of staff Mary Rowe was paid $428,161, up from $259,110 in 2017.

“I recognize that the numbers are big. I mean, that is true,” Wynne told the Star on Wednesday. “But, you know, these were people who were earning salaries that were consistent with what other people in their roles had earned, and they were very important to the government in terms of being responsible for files that affected people all over the province.”

The annual Sunshine List of the biggest pay packets in Ontario’s public sector grew by 19,131 employees last year to 151,197 — an increase of 14.5 per cent in the number of bureaucrats, teachers, police, TTC workers and others topping the $100,000-a-year mark.

Departing Ontario Power Generation chief executive Jeff Lyash, who is leaving to head the Tennessee Valley Authority, was once again the highest paid at $1.75 million.

Most of the growth in Sunshine List earners — 17,792 in all — was in the broader public sector outside the provincial civil service, the government noted.

“Anytime that you see compensation go up — anytime that 52 per cent of all government expenditures are compensation — you want to take a hard look, and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy said at Queen’s Park.

After the PCs were elected, Bethlenfalvy said “we froze executive compensation, we froze hiring of non-essential (staff) — excluding front-line workers — and we’ve taken action since to ensure that taxpayers are getting value for money.”

Bethlenfalvy also said that bringing on experts like Rueben Devlin to head the premier’s council on improving health care — at $348,000 a year — will lead to an improved, modernized system.

He wouldn’t promise a smaller Sunshine List for 2019 — the first full year of a PC government — “but what I can tell you is that we are very focused on making sure that we deliver value in all the positions.”

But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath predicted the 2018 salary disclosure will be eclipsed next year.

“We need to hold our breaths for next year when we see Mr. Ford’s gravy train roll into the station when it comes to the Sunshine List,” Horwath told reporters.

“It’s going to be a big wow factor as well,” she said, noting the premier has been dishing out six-figure patronage plums to Conservative loyalists since taking office last June.

“What we’ve seen is the premier of the province, who … likes to talk about fiscal responsibility, actually jack up the pay of a lot of his friends that he’s appointing to these positions.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said his biggest concern is the highly paid CEOs on the list.

“I’ve always felt that we should be capping executive public service salaries to double the premier’s salary, or something along those lines,” Schreiner said. “Those are the numbers I’m looking at, where the high-end Sunshine List members are sitting and where their salaries are at.”

He said the PCs have “brought in a number of political appointments at very high (salaries),” including a new, full-time chair of the province’s school standardized testing agency, the EQAO, who is making $140,000 a year. His predecessor earned $3,600 for the part-time job.

“They have a lot of questions to answer in that regard.”

The list was released Wednesday, just two weeks before Finance Minister Vic Fedeli will unveil the first budget from Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford, who has pledged to cut annual spending by four per cent or $6 billion.

Bethlenfalvy said the total cost of government salaries, including for workers earning less than $100,000, was $19.2 billion last year.

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For the first time, the government did not print copies of the Sunshine List, which usually runs to several volumes, reportedly to save money.

The list of public sector employees who earn more than $100,000 was first issued under Conservative premier Mike Harris in 1996 and remains a yearly fixture at Queen’s Park, despite the fact that $100,000 then would be worth $149,156 now, once inflation is factored in.

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Conversely, $100,000 today is the equivalent of $67,044 in 1996.

Subsequent governments have been reluctant to change the threshold, saying $100,000 is still a lot of money to average Ontarians.

The Conservatives railed against high public sector salaries during their last 15 years in opposition. However, since taking power, Ford has created new positions for friends and advisers like Devlin, a former head of Humber River Hospital, who now has a three-year, $1.04 million contract heading the panel tackling the problem of hospital overcrowding.

In February, the government also named failed PC candidate Cameron Montgomery as the first full-time chair of the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) at a salary of $140,000 — 39 times higher than his predecessor.

Ford posted former campaign adviser Ian Todd as Ontario’s trade representative in Washington, D.C., replacing Liberal patronage appointee Monique Smith, and gave Todd a $100,000 raise over the previous salary.

MPPs have had their salaries frozen since 2008, with the premier making $208,974 annually. Cabinet ministers are paid $165,851 and backbench members of the legislature get a base salary of $116,500.

Ford made $112,770 last year after taking office on June 29.

The top 10 highest earners in Ontario:

Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation: $1,746,824

Daren Smith, president and chief investment officer of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation: $989,308

Glenn Jager, nuclear president and chief nuclear officer of OPG: $962,749

Mark Fuller, president and CEO of the Ontario Public Service Pension Board: $803,552

Michael Apkon, who left the Hospital for Sick Children in the fall as president and CEO: $792,571

Sean Granville, chief nuclear officer at OPG: $774,054

Dietmar E. Reiner, senior vice president of nuclear projects at OPG: $766,192

Stephen Rigby, president and CEO of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.: $765,406

William Reichman, president and CEO of Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care: $722,875

Andy Smith, president and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre: $714,999

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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