Information released as part of the Ontario government’s annual Sunshine List reveals that 68 per cent of sworn York Regional Police officers are being paid more than $100,000 a year.

Although the number of total staff on the list fell by 15, from 1,152 to 1,137 in 2016, it’s still an increase of more than 20 per cent from 2014 when the number was 898.

A number of recent senior officer retirements has resulted in the service announcing it will be hiring 100 officers in the near future.

The top two earners were police Chief Eric Jolliffe, who earned $272,696, and Deputy Chief Thomas Carrique who received $230,974.

Apart from police, the document lists a number of individuals whose salaries far exceed the average Ontarian's annual salary — approximately $50,000 according to Statistics Canada — including former Stouffville CAO, Marc Pourhavidi, who earned $447,289, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, who received $187,881, and Mackenzie Health president and CEO, Altaf Stationwala who was paid $515,411.

In the case of the uniformed officers he represents, Todd Sepkowski, president of the York Regional Police Association, said it’s impossible to compare the police to others when it comes to salaries considering the nature of their work.

“I don’t think it’s fair to take a large organization like us — a specialized workforce — and compare us to other organizations," he said. "Policing isn’t like those jobs because we’re asked to do very specialized jobs. Policing isn’t a 9-to-5 job, we work Christmas, Easter; I can’t tell you how many birthdays and special events I’ve had to cancel.

"I think our salary is a fair representation of what we do.”

Furthermore, police officers often live in the communities where they work, supporting local economies and communities where they volunteer, he added.

“We plow our money back into the community,” he said. “On average, municipal costs like transportation and garbage collection and recreation are higher than net police costs.”