The provincial government has told Ontario Colleges to come up with new salary proposals for their presidents and executives — including nixing a possible $140,000 raise for Mohawk College's president.

The college says that number is the upper end of a proposed range, and not necessarily what president Ron McKerlie would have automatically ended up being paid had the province okayed it.

But Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews still balked at the requests from colleges around the province, calling them "concerning," particularly those that don't compare salaries to other colleges or organizations of a similar size.

"Quite frankly, having some of the colleges choose comparators 10 times their own size is not in the spirit of the legislation as it was intended and it's not in the spirit of what we are trying to achieve as we move toward a balanced budget," Matthews told a news conference Thursday at Queen's Park.

Documents posted by Mohawk College show it proposed to raise the president's salary from $260,208 to up to $401,000.

But college spokesperson Jay Robb says that number represents a range, and that $401,000 is the upper limit of what the president could pull in.

"He's not going to go from the salary he has now to the top of that range," Robb said.

"He's also currently the lowest paid president at any of the GTA colleges, and that's part of why it seems so high."

Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews is ordering the boards of Ontario's colleges to revisit proposed pay hikes that would have seen salaries for senior executives rise as much as 56 per cent. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Some colleges, including Mohawk, have been using universities and hospitals as comparators for management salaries.

Colleges Ontario president Linda Franklin said she doesn't necessarily agree that those are unfair comparisons.

"I do think that these colleges have become very complex, very challenging organizations and the presidents have a great deal of decision-making authority," she said.

But, she said, the colleges could do a better job of communicating both that the proposals were only one step in a process, and that there were ranges.

"I think people were looking at the ranges and thinking, 'Oh my god, salaries are going up $100,000' and of course all the colleges were doing was establishing a range that could last for many years," Franklin said.

Executives across the Ontario public sector are in a position to receive raises effective April 1. The pay freeze has been in place since 2012 and is due to be lifted once the government delivers a balanced budget.

Franklin also said college presidents have been recruited to senior posts at universities and hospitals.

That was the case in Hamilton, when former Mohawk president Rob MacIsaac left to become the President and CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences back in 2014.