University Presidents in Quebec Earn More Than Prime Ministers Legault and Trudeau: Controversy Sparked Over Salary Disparities

2024-05-12 04:00:00

Some university presidents in Quebec earn more than Prime Ministers François Legault and Justin Trudeau.

“How does a rector who manages a university of 45,000 students earn more than the prime minister who manages a country with 40 million inhabitants? This is not right,” laments political scientist and University of Ottawa professor Geneviève Tellier.

Our compilation shows, for example, that the rector of the University of Montreal, Daniel Jutras, earned $455,635 in 2023. This is $185,000 more than the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault and $49,000 more than the Prime Minister of Canada.

And yet, he earns less than his peers in 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-provost Suzanne Fortier. The University did not respond to our requests for an interview.

The highest salaries in education

Earned annual salary in Canadian $ in 2023 (if not stated*)

*data for 2022

Two lives

Our data shows that the heads of the Quebec university network have a lower salary than the heads of other universities.

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

“We notice very different trends between charter universities, so McGill, University of Montreal, Concordia, etc., compared to the “UQ” network, a tendency to give higher salaries”

The rector of the University of Quebec in Montreal, Stéphane Pallage, pocketed a salary of $253,942 last year, almost half as much as the rector of the University of Montreal.

The rector of the University of Quebec at Rimouski, François Deschênes, and the rector of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, Christian Blanchette pocketed $232,001.

• Listen to Alexandre Dubé’s discussion with journalist Annabelle Blais via OLD :

According to Ms. Laurin-Lamothe, bonuses and exit bonuses for charter university leaders are driven by the private sector, and therefore higher.

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

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