From 2020 to 2025, the Manitoba Government's Sunshine List - a list of employees making more than $100,000 annually - increased from 12,320 to 34,304. That's a 178% increase over five years, a trend Canadian Taxpayers Federation Prairie Director Gage Haubrich says is concerning, to say the least.
"Every extra six figure salary that the government hands out is another salary the taxpayers have to pay for, and the government's deep in debt, and taxpayers really can't afford to keep covering the cost of this out of control government wage bill. That's the first thing, right, it's expensive, taxpayers can't afford it, especially the growth at this rate...taxpayers pay the bills for all these employees, but we see from studies that government employees who do similar work to those in the private sector are paid more, as well as those who work for the government often retire earlier, and have better job security than those who work in the private sector," said Haubrich.
The fairness aspect is a big focus for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The average Manitoba earns $63,290 annually, while taxes go towards higher paid government salaries. Plus, the CTF says the budget is a big concern - with the Province trying to balance the budget and cut spending, they're increasing government salaries by such a large jump over five years. In 2025, the Province spent $2.6 billion more on government salaries than 2020.
"The government is saying that it wants to balance the budget, but we're seeing huge deficits, we're seeing more irresponsible borrowing every year that keeps on adding to the debt, and the sunshine list is just a symptom of that overall problem...paying employees is the biggest line item in the government's budget, and you can't get to a balanced budget, you can't stop borrowing money if you don't do something to trim those huge payroll numbers, and that's not what we're seeing right now from the government," said Haubrich.
As Prairie Director, Haubrich also oversees Saskatchewan. He said Manitoba does have a point on our neighbours to the west, as the Manitoba government is a lot more transparent and simple with their data.
