Canada’s highest-earning CEO last year took home $230 million. His company isn’t involved in artificial intelligence or is a financial giant; it’s actually in the garbage recycling business, which many people consider dirty. The Globe and Mail, in collaboration with Global Governance Advisors, has dissected the executive compensation of Canada’s 100 largest publicly traded companies for fiscal year 2025. The salary gap on the list is alarmingly large. Patrick Dovigi, president and CEO of GFL Environmental, has a total compensation of $230,735,743, more than the combined total of the six people ranked 2nd to 7th on the list . What does 230 million mean? That’s roughly 630,000 a day! If you break it down, it’s even more outrageous. Patrick’s base salary is $2.46 million and his bonuses are $9.91 million. These two items combined only amount to $12.37 million, which is not even a fraction of his total .
The real bulk of the compensation is $108 million in “other compensation,” plus $110 million in stock awards , while the options and pension categories are simply zero. Second place goes to Jim Kessler, CEO of RB Global, with $60.23 million . This company owns the well-known Ritchie Bros auction house. His base salary was $1.33 million, his bonus was $3.14 million, and his “other compensation” alone amounted to $30.11 million . The third person on the list is Tobias Lütke, co-founder and CEO of Shopify, with a base salary of $1 . Bonuses, other compensation, stock awards, and pension benefits are all zero. Looking at the next section, the option reward is $48,912,536, bringing the total to $48.91 million . There’s another interesting person on the list. Mark Bristow, the former CEO of Barrick Mining, left the company in September 2025.
He received zero bonuses, zero stock awards, and zero stock options, but his “other compensation” section showed $29.8 million, bringing his total to $31.95 million . The remaining individuals are largely comprised of those in the energy, mining, railroad, insurance, and auto parts industries. Charles Brindamour of Intact Insurance earned $29.32 million; Seetarama Kotagiri of Magna International earned $27.23 million; Keith Creel of CPKC Railroad earned $25.65 million; Ammar Al-Joundi of Agnico Eagle Mining earned $24.65 million; Gregory Ebel of Enbridge earned $24.38 million; and Robert Mionis of Celestica earned $24.33 million. In other words, the threshold for making it into the top ten highest-paid CEOs in Canada has risen to $24.33 million . These ten people split $520 million in one year, with the top-ranked individual accounting for nearly half of it.