Civil servant salaries: University heads line their pockets

Several university presidents in Quebec earn more than Prime Ministers Francois Legault and Justin Trudeau.

“How can a rector managing a university with 45,000 students earn more than a prime minister managing a country of 40 million people? It’s not right,” laments Genevieve Dellier, a political scientist and professor at the University of Ottawa.

For example, our compilation shows that Daniel Jutras, rector of the University of Montreal, earned $455,635 in 2023. That’s $185,000 more than Quebec’s premier François Legault and $49,000 more than the Canadian prime minister.

Still, he earns less than his colleagues at English-speaking universities. At McGill, former dean of the faculty of medicine David H. Eidelman earned $533,624 in 2022, or $40,000 more than then-chancellor Suzanne Fortier. The university did not respond to our interview requests.

Two worlds

Our data show that presidents of the Quebec university network have lower salaries than presidents of other universities.

Audrey Laurin-Lamothe, expert on compensation issues and associate professor at York University, notes:

“Compared to the UQ network, we observe very different trends between charter universities such as McGill, University of Montreal, Concordia, etc., with a tendency to pay higher salaries.”

The rector of the University of Quebec in Montreal, Stéphane Ballage, earned $253,942 last year, nearly half that of the rector of the University of Montreal.

The rector of the University of Quebec in Rimouski, François Deschenes, and the rector of the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, Christian Blanchet, each pocketed $232,001.

• Listen to Alexandre Dubey’s conversation with journalist Annabelle Place QUB :

According to M^me Laurin-Lamothe said bonuses and departure bonuses for charter university presidents are private-sector-inspired and therefore higher.

“There is also the fame, reputation and influence of the university. There are many factors that can be linked [à ces disparités]», adds François Dauphin, director of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGOPP).