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Amid a climate of austerity on the McGill University campus, new revelations about the pension that former Principal Heather Munroe-Blum recently started collecting has rankled many union groups.

Access to Information documents show that Munroe-Blum, who retired from her position as principal in 2013 and is no longer teaching at McGill, is entitled to a supplementary pension of almost $284,000 a year on top of the almost $87,000 she gets from regular pension plans from McGill and the University of Toronto.

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The information also suggests that Munroe-Blum may have been earning much more than has been documented, perhaps as high as $740,000 — which would make it the richest package of any university president in Canada, then or now. That’s based on the fact that her supplementary pension entitlement should represent about 50 per cent of her highest average earnings.

However, Olivier Marcil, vice-principal of communications and external relations for McGill, said in an email that her salary was $369,000 plus benefits as previously reported, but that “adjustments were made to her pension calculation during that time which resulted in the ($284,000 pension payment) amount.”