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Canada’s top doctor, recently appointed by the federal government, appears to have taken the job at bargain rates: Dr. Gregory Taylor will earn less than many of his provincial counterparts – and at least one municipal health officer.

Taylor, 59, replaced Dr. David Butler-Jones, who held the role as Chief Public Health Officer and head of the Public Health Agency of Canada from 2004 until June 2013. Taylor had been running the agency, with its staff of 2,500 and an annual budget of $600 million, since Butler-Jones suffered a stroke in May 2012.

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The Privy Council Office says Taylor’s salary is set somewhere between $223,800 and $262,200. (When Butler-Jones’s contract was extended in 2011, his salary was listed as somewhere between $267,200 and $314,400.)

Taylor’s starting salary appears to stack up unfavourably against chief public health heads in at least five provinces, leading some critics to wonder if the job is being downgraded.