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Legislators don’t want a government of the people, by the people and for the people but a government of the employees, by the employees and for the employees. —  Arnold Schwarzenegger, then-governor of California, The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 27, 2010

In an earlier column, I noted that Ontario elementary school public teachers earn an average $78 an hour, based on the hours their collective agreement requires them to work.  That was incorrect. 

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By my calculations, when all is said and done, their hourly earnings are closer to $150.  Extrapolate $150 into most taxpayers’ 40-hour work week and they would receive an annual salary of about $312,000, essentially what the prime minister earns and about double that of an ordinary Member of Parliament.  In fact, it would make teachers, on an hourly basis, the highest paid profession in the land. 

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Which group of 70,000 Ontario civil servants is paid slightly more than $78 per hour? 

To put it in perspective, the average Canadian aerospace engineer earns about half of this, at $40 per hour; veterinarians $38; civil engineers $37; HR specialists $28; Web designers and developers $25; and journalists, I am afraid to say, just $24, less than one-third of this group.