The Sunshine list is a Canadian political jargon referring to a listing of selected government or public sector workers with their salary and job title published by the government for transparency purposes. The colloquial moniker has in some circles attained term of art status, as it describes not only the list, but the legally mandated public disclosure exercise of compensation information of senior civil servants and executive leaders of institutions and organizations that are dependent on government fundings for their operations.
First formally implemented in Ontario in 1996, the mandatory disclosure of public sector pay information is an element of the broader freedom of information framework, and share the same philosophical underpinnings as other open government measures, that government belongs to the public and the public, generally in theory, has a right to government information. It is also expected that public disclosure contributes to a less corrupt, more efficient government by allowing broader scrutiny. Sunshine list is however distinct from other freedom of information element, in that it is expected to serve not only ultraistic purposes of accountability and transparency,CBC News "Sunshine List 2014: Ontario's Top Public Earners List Released" but also to serve for more practical purposes of cost saving and value-for-money assessment.
The moniker pays homage to the proverb "Sunlight is the best disinfectant" and highlight the objective of transparency and of illuminating government expenditures. The colloquial term conveniently conveys a common understanding for a transparency process that could be, ironically, opaque in some aspects, and with a fair degree of implementation variations.
As of summer of 2026, eight of the ten provinces have established sunshine list, with a ninth provinces in the process of implementation. The government of Quebec is the only province with no ongoing salary disclosure. The federal Government of Canada also have not establish a sunshine list or similar system of salary disclosure.
Cross-country summary
Priovince Started Threshold # disclosed Timing Note Ontario1996 $100,000 404,922 October Manitoba 1996 $85,000~43,000 Fall New Brunswick 2000 $80,000 ~22,000 June Saskatchewan 2005 $50,00010,910 OctoberFiscal year ending March 31 British Columbia 2008 $125,000$75,000 ~153,000 SummerFiscal year ending March 31 Through multiple parts Alberta 2014 $159,833 ~8,000 JuneThreshold adjusted annually Nova Scotia 2016 $100,000 ~17,000 Summer Newfoundland and Labrador 2016 $100,000 13,802 June Prince Edward IslandLegislation enacted May 2026 Canada No applicable legislation QuebecNo applicable legislation
History Origin of sunshine Sunshine has been associated with measures for government tranparency in the United States for a few decades prior to its prevalent association with government salary disclosure in Canada. Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law, passed in 1967 and remain in effect, requires that all meetings of any public body in Florida be open to the public, and the US federal government adopted legislation with the same name in 1976. Those American laws were occasionally referred to by Ontario journalists during the government consultation for freedom of information in late 1976.
As the first province to implement a sunshine list and the home of the largest media market, the origin story of the term revolved around the Ontario legislature. By the time most other provinces were considering their own salary disclosure regime, the colloquial term "sunshine list" had already attained default usage, term-of-art status by Ontario's press and political class. Given that Ontario's list was implemented in the early days of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Harris ministry by finance minister Ernie Eves, it is often mistaken as a key plank in the Common Sense Revolution that stormed Queen's Park in 1995, or as having been a campaign rallying call of the Harris Conservatives in the 1995 Ontario election.
It was actually Frank Miller – the Ontario premier who in 1985 elevated both future premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves to his short-lived ministry – who first associated the word sunshine specifically with government salary disclosure requirements. In 1982, Miller as then Ontario treasurer announced in his budget presentation speech plans for "sunshine law" requiring all public bodies under provincial jurisdiction to publish the salaries of employees making more than $30,000 . The legislation was however abandoned due to push back from public sectors union.
Sunshine did however re-emerged during the 1995 election campaign, somewhat ironically, due to Liberal leader Lyn McLeod pledging to bring "sunshine on public-sector pay" legislation within the first year of taking office. Cutting government waste was a core campaign focus for the PC Party that year, with an array of aggressive and eye-catching measured being pledged. Salary disclosure was comparatively modest and received only a passing mention in the Common Sense Revolution, the PC's platform book for that election.
While a salary disclosure system was in implemented in 1996, it would be a few more years still before "sunshine list" became the unmistakable moniker for public disclosure of government workers' salary. Following its implementation, politicians and journalists mentioned sunshine law occasionally to describe the disclosure requirement. The mention of the term "sunshine list" was recorded only once in the Hansard for the 36th and 37th Ontario Parliament (the period of PC government led by Harris and Eves), by legislature veteran Sean Conway, a former Liberal minister. The release of the list was widely reported annually but only once labeled "sunshine list" in a major dailies prior to 2003.
An inclusion of "sunshine list" in a Toronto Star headline reporting the 2003 list, the final release before the PC government's ouster later that year, brought the term out from government backrooms into the wider public's consciousness, and its usage exploded in the following year with over five thousands employees at the two power generating entities making the list. Since 2004, reliable annual spikes for "sunshine list" as a search term were recorded at the end of March and first few days of April, coinciding with the annual release of the Ontario list.
From publicly-traded companies to the public sector Legislatively mandated public disclosure of salary started to attract public attention in the 1990s as Canada went through a period of economic downturn. Economic hardship and frequent news of layoffs led to more calls for greater transparency for executive compensation. Facing increasing criticism from the corporate sector about government spending during this period, Ontario Premier Bob Rae responded by demanding accountability from the corporate sector. The NDP government of Ontario instructed the Ontario Securities Commission in October 1993 to require companies listed in Toronto to disclosure salary of their of top executive. The measure was quickly replicated by British Columbia and Quebec.
In Alberta, Progressive Conservative Premier Ralph Klein won his first electoral mandate in June 1993 campaigning on a voluntary 5% public sector wage roll-back. After the election, The Klein ministry targeted the MUSHers – municipalities, universities, school boards and Hospitals – in which the province's auditor general had identified many instances of senior executives receiving above guidelines pay hikes while laying off workers – with legislation mandating the publication of the compensation paid to board members and senior executive of these sectors.
The pushes in both provinces elicited similar response from opposition demanding salary disclosure for politicians. In Alberta, the Liberal oppositions went after compensation for various government appointees on agencies and public boards. In Ontario, the Progressive Conservative opposition sought to expand disclosure to political aides and senior civil servants.
Sunshine lists in individual jurisdictions The formal names of the disclosure regime, the scopes of the applicable law and the disclosure mechanism vary from provinces to provinces. Since Canada is a confederation, the federal government and each of the ten provincial government determines whether to disclose, and if so, how. The reach of such a system is limited to the public sector workers under their specific jurisdiction. Accordingly, federal government employee based in provinces with sunshine lists are not subject to them.
As of summer of 2026, eight of the ten provinces have salary disclosure law and mechanism in place for ten or more years, and a ninth province adopted legislation with implementation underway. This leave the federal government and the government of Quebec as outliers with no disclosure system in place.
Even among the nine provinces with salary disclosure, the scope and the operations still vary. In most provinces, but not all, disclosure requirements extend to all "public sector" workers, or "MUSHers" as they were known in Alberta in 1990s (for municipalities, universities, school board, and hospitals). In Ontario, the law extend to private organizations that are recipients of government grants of certain size. Most provinces disclose simply the sum of renumeration without further context information (such as whether the worker worked the full year, or whether the figure included any lump sum or irregular payment), while other disclosed the annualized pay rate. In British Columbia, the data are released through multiple different means.
Alberta Alberta first started publishing a sunshine list in 2014 following the 2012 election of Alison Redford. The introduction of the list followed public debate about the severance awarded to Redford's former chief of staff. In Alberta, the policy applies to deputy ministers, senior officials, political staff appointed under the Executive Assistant Order and employees defined under the Public Service Act who work for the offices of ministers and associate ministers, and who made an annual base salary of at least $100,000. The government began disclosing base salaries, benefit and severance amounts, and details of contract and termination agreements beginning on 31 January 2014. Information was to be posted online twice annually no later than 30 June (salaries and severances) and 31 December (severances in the latter half of the year) and included all staff employed as of 23 April 2012.
As of 2022, public sector bodies' employees are listed at salaries above $141,183, as Alberta indexes against inflation.
British Columbia Public Sector salary disclosure in British Columbia comes from three sources.
Starting in 2008, public sector "organizations" are required to disclosure the compensation of their top five decision makers. The Public Sector Employee Act deems senior employees' employment contracts at public sector organizations to be public documents, and requires each organization to table a report that specifically disclose the total compensation for the chief executive officer and the four most senior executive decision makers earning a base salary of $125,000 or more. The same requirement for top five executives applies equally to all organization regardless of size. Given that there are only approximately 120 organizations subject to Public Sector Employee Act, this source provide disclosure for less than a thousand employee each year. These reports are disclosed as Public Sector Executive Compensation Disclosure Statements.