March 2022 , updated January 2025

A 2016 Access to Information request revealed the following information about the salaries of senior executives under the GoCo scheme for operating Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories (and other federal nuclear sites). Scroll down to the end of this post for the updated information from the 2024 ATIP request.

Nine senior executives were paid an average of $722,000 per person per year (including travel)
Most were non-Canadian.

Twenty-eight senior contractors were paid an average of $377,275 per year per person.
27 of the 28 senior contractors were non-Canadian.

The documents obtained trough the ATIP program are as follows:

File 1: Executive and senior contractor files (9 executive salaries + travel) = $722, 000 / yr per person. Senior contractor costs (28 persons) at $377, 275 / yr per person. (For comparison purposes, consider that the salary of the Prime Minister of Canada is $347,400 per year)

File 2. Confirmation that 27 out of 28 senior contractors were non-Canadian. It is not known if any Canadian tax is paid by the non Canadians.

Files 3. CNEA fees ~ CNEA fees are all redacted despite being taxpayer funded and Science Advisory Board, SAB, costs. Typically the CNEA fees would likely be 15-20% of overall contract value per year but there is no way to confirm what these CNEA fees are. Also on p4 of 7 is the Science Advisory Board  cost for one year. ($183,254) where 4 out of 5 members were non-Canadian (advising Canadians on science policy).

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The following updated information was obtained in an ATIP request in 2024:

“In 2023, via contract money funneled through AECL, Canadian taxpayers paid average salaries of $510,301 to each of 44 CNL executives and non-executive contract staff, mostly non-Canadians — well above the Prime Minister’s $406,200 salary. ” Ole Hendrickson, Rabble.ca

GoCo contract costs – Total labour and total non-labour costs

	Number		Total cost ($)4,5,6		Average cost ($)
	2023	2016	2023	2016	2023	2016
CNL executives1	14	9	7,969,646	6,498,000	569,260	722,000
CNL non-executive contract staff2	30	28	14,483,594	10,563,700	482,786	377,275
CNL total or average	44	37	22,453,240	17,061,700	510,301	461,127
AECL executives3	11		5,710,125		519,102
CNL + AECL total or average	55		28,163,365		512,061

¹Total Canadian National Energy Alliance executive management labour and non-labour costs included in expenses (not necessarily paid) of all CNL managers working on management type functions relating to the GoCo.  Labour costs include salaries, bonuses, performance-related fees and other compensation. Non-labour costs include all other costs (e.g., relocation costs). 

²Total labour and total non-labour costs included in expenses (not necessarily paid) of GoCo contract staff working on management type functions related to the GoCo: (30 staff including 20 non-Canadians in 2023; 28 staff including 27 non-Canadians in 2016).  Labour costs include salaries, bonuses, performance-related fees and other compensation paid by CNL for contractors. Non-labour costs include all other costs paid by CNL for contractors (e.g., relocation costs). 

³Total labour and total non-labour costs included in expenses for AECL’s 11 executive staff for the most recent fiscal year, 2023-24.

⁴Total travel costs (non-labour) for CNL executives in 2016 were $200,732. 

⁵Total labour costs for non-executive contract staff in 2016 were $6,207,952; total non-labour costs for non-executive contract staff in 2016 were $4,355,748.

⁶Total cost of CNL executives increased by 22.6% between 2016 and 2023; total cost of CNL non-executive contract staff increased by 37.1% between 2016 and 2023.