TORONTO - 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 and public sector workers earning more than $100,000 jumped a whopping 24 per cent over 2006.

The so-called "sunshine list'' released Monday shows 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, some 14,000 civil servants and public sector workers have been added to the list of those making more than $100,000.

A select few have even joined the $1-million club.

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, while the senior vice-president of investments at OMERS, Paul Pugh, earned $1.2 million.

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 the money is well spent.

Ontario's civil service is the second most efficient in the country after Nova Scotia's, he said. Ontario also has the fewest civil servants per capital in Canada, McGuinty said after a stop in Windsor, Ont.

"We're actually running a very efficient operation,'' McGuinty said, 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?''

The energy sector accounted for more than 8,000 workers on the list -- an increase of just over 1,000 from 2006. The number of municipal employees earning more than $100,000 saw the largest increase, swelling 41 per cent over last year.

The health-care sector also dominated the list with 4,100 employees, up from 3,100 in 2005.

Nurses, paramedics and pathologists have become staples of the $100,000 club, but Robert Bell, CEO of the University Health Network in Toronto, topped the list of health-care workers with a combined salary and benefit package of more than $835,000, followed by Jeffrey Lozon, CEO of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, who earned $760,000.

The sunshine list also includes police officers, principals, teachers and even three plumbers making more than $100,000.

"Mostly this is just about people who, just through slight advances in their pay, have made it across the line,'' said deputy premier George Smitherman, who chalked up much of the increase to inflation.

But Conservative Bob Runciman said given the slowing economy, 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 with no regard for tax dollars, he said.

"People who are hard-working and are paying their taxes expect governments to show restraint, especially in times of economic difficulty,'' Runciman said. "It sends out all the wrong messages. It reaffirms the suspicions of people that governments are in there for their own good and public servants are in there for their own good.''

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the Liberal government continues to neglect Ontario's most vulnerable by refusing to significantly boost the minimum wage while inflating the salaries of bureaucrats and politicians.

Provincial politicians will get their third pay increase in 16 months Tuesday, resulting in a total increase of 35 per cent, Hampton said. At the same time, Hampton said the Liberals are cutting front-line staff while boosting the ranks of senior management.

"You walk into a Ministry of Natural Resources office ... there is hardly anybody there,'' he said. "But at the senior levels, there are an increasing number of people collecting high salaries.''