Keith Cronkhite, the CEO of N.B. Power who was fired in July 2022, was the province’s top-paid public servant in 2023. He earned between $575,000 and $599,999 that year.
The information was released as part of a list of all government employees making over $80,000 in the previous year, known as the “Sunshine List.”
Cronkhite topped the list for a fourth straight year.
Published each December, the salaries are published online but only include a salary range for each person instead of an exact number.
Cronkhite’s 2023 salary was larger than his past salaries, likely due to a severance payout. He made between $600,000 and $624,999 in 2022, and between $475,000 and $499,999 in 2021.
The company’s replacement CEO, Lori Clark, who stepped in as acting president in July 2022 and was appointed CEO in March 2023, came second on this year’s list, making between $475,000 and $499,999.
N.B. Powers’ Darren Murphy, chief financial officer and senior vice-president of corporate services and major projects, came in eighth, making between $375,000 and $399,999.
Point Lepreau workers place high
Leaders of Point Lepreau, N.B. Power’s besieged nuclear plant, also placed high. It was shut down for eight months in 2024 due to generator trouble.
Darren Elliott made between $350,000 and $374,999. A LinkedIn account with the same name lists him as a shift supervisor at the plant since 2015.
The Point Lepreau nuclear station was shut down for much of this year. Two leaders at the plant place high on the sunshine list in 2023. (Marc Godbout/Radio-Canada)
Mark Power made between $325,000 and $349,999. An N.B. Power bulletin from 2018 announced Power as the new station director for Point Lepreau.
N.B. Power employees made up 51 of the top 100 spots on this year’s list. This comes as the utility just won the ability to raise customer rates an average of 19 per cent over two years.
Judges and healthcare workers
Judges came next on the list, with Jacques Desjardins and Kenneth Oliver making between $400,000 and $424,999. Oliver retired in December 2023 while the subject of a disciplinary proceeding for misconduct.
The profession dominates the highest earner spots this year, with 26 of the top 35 earners in the province listed as judges.
Judges made up most of the highest-earning spots on the list. (CBC)
The fifth-highest paid public employee of 2023 was Dragana Kelly of Horizon Health Network, who is not an executive. She made $400,000 and $424,999, an increase of about $25,000 from 2022. That’s more than the salaries of both health authority executives.
The Nurses Association of New Brunswick lists her as a registered nurse since 2017 in the Veterans Health Unit in Fredericton.
Vitalité Health Network’s France Desrosiers earned between $350,000 and $374,999, unchanged from her salary the previous year. She faces pressure this year for the health authority’s involvement in travel nurse contracts during the pandemic.
Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson earned between $325,000 and $349,999, an increase from the previous year. She was made permanent CEO in May 2024 after being interim CEO following the firing of CEO John Dornan under the Blaine Higgs government.
Melanson now finds Dornan as her boss after he was appointed health minister by Premier Susan Holt this fall.
Margaret Melanson, CEO of Horizon, saw her salary increase this year. (Horizon/Zoom)
Susan Brien, Horizon’s senior vice-president for medical, academic and research affairs, made the same amount as Melanson.
Jennifer Russell, who resigned as the province’s chief medical officer of health in October 2023, made between $300,000 and $324,999. That’s a slight decrease from her salary the previous year.
Yves Léger, who’s been the acting chief medical officer since Russell’s departure, also made between $300,000 and $324,999 for 2023.
Kim Barker with the Health Department also made that same amount. She’s the medical officer of health for the Saint John region, taking the job after resigning from a similar post in Northern Ontario after a scandal.
Mark McKelvie, Fredericton’s medical officer, made between $250,000 and $274,999.
Other various roles
Lori Stickles, CEO of N.B. Liquor, made between $300,000 and $324,999 for 2023.
Service New Brunswick CEO Allan Roy made between $250,000 and $274,999.
Higgs earned just over $220,000 in 2023, which accounts for his salary plus a ministerial top-up and car and travel expenses.
Former premier Blaine Higgs made just over $220,000 in 2023. (Stephen MacGillivray/The Canadian Press)
Louis Leger, Higgs’s former chief of staff who left in January 2023, received a severance of $200,000 to $224,999.
The highest-paid deputy minister was Cheryl Hansen of the Finance and Treasury Board, making between $300,000 and $324,999. She was also clerk of the executive council under the Higgs government. Eric Beaulieu of the Health Department came second with between $225,000 and $249,999.
The largest retirement payment, between $225,000 and $249,999, went to Mary Ellen Kingston-Ritchie, the director of student development for New Brunswick Community College.