The head of Ontario's municipal pension fund was the highest paid civil servant last year with a $2.2-million salary as the number of bureaucrats earning more than $100,000 jumped a whopping 24 per cent over 2006.

The so-called "sunshine list" showed 42,000 Ontario government employees and workers at Crown corporations, municipalities, hospitals, colleges and universities pulled in more than $100,000 last year — an increase of 8,000 over 2006.

Since 2005, 14,000 civil servants and public sector workers have been added to the list of those making more than $100,000.

Paul Haggis, president of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, topped the list of last year's earners with a $2.2-million salary and almost $10,000 in taxable benefits. Jim Hankinson, president of Ontario Power Generation, came in second with a salary of $1.7 million and $7,500 in taxable benefits.

The energy sector accounted for more than 8,000 workers on the list — an increase of slightly more than 1,000 from 2006. The number of municipal employees making more than $100,000 saw the largest increase as it swelled 41 per cent over last year.

The health-care sector also dominated the list with 4,100 employees — up from 3,100 in 2005. That list included the president of Toronto's Mount Sinai hospital, Joesph Mapa, who made $616,000 last year.

Premier defends public service efficiency

While the public service has come under attack recently from Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, who accused some bureaucrats of simply "breathing each other's exhaust," Premier Dalton McGuinty said Ontario's civil service is the second-most efficient in the country.

Ontario has the fewest civil servants per capita in Canada, McGuinty said following an auto sector announcement in Windsor, Ont.

"We're actually running a very efficient operation," said McGuinty, adding he would like to know who Tory considers expendable.

"We've hired water inspectors, we've hired nurses, we've hired doctors, we've hired teachers…. Which of those does he declare surplus? Which of those would he fire? Which of those would he let go?"

Opposition Leader Bob Runciman said it's worrisome that the bulk of job creation in Ontario has been in the public sector. The Liberals are "bloating the bureaucracy" and boosting salaries at an alarming rate, he said.

"We know we're entering a slowdown in the economy if not a recession," Runciman said in the legislature.

"Given the tenor of the times and the challenges we're all facing, is it appropriate [to] have dramatic increases in salaries of public employees?"