Gary Mar was paid $322,000 in salary and benefits in 2013, according to a list of the government’s top salary earners posted online on FridayJEFF MCINTOSH/The Canadian Press
The man who suffered a stunning defeat to Alison Redford for the premiership of Alberta is now earning well over $300,000 as the provincial trade representative in Asia.
Gary Mar was paid $322,000 in salary and benefits in 2013, according to a list of the government's top salary earners posted online on Friday.
Mr. Mar's earnings make him Alberta's highest-paid diplomat.
His earnings, and those of 3,100 others who make more than $100,000 a year, were posted online as part of Ms. Redford's pledge to make government more accountable.
The numbers will be updated twice yearly from now on, and at this point do not include officials with Alberta Health Services or provincial boards, agencies and commissions.
Don Scott, the associate minister in charge of transparency, said there is no timeline yet to get the others on board.
"We are going to be working with the agencies, boards, and commissions so that they live up to the spirit of what we're doing," Mr. Scott said.
Friday's disclosures revealed Mr. Mar made $274,000 plus more than $48,000 in cash benefits in 2013.
He was appointed to the post in Hong Kong shortly after he lost to Ms. Redford late in 2011 in the Progressive Conservative Party's vote to replace outgoing premier Ed Stelmach.
Mr. Mar, a former Alberta health minister, was considered the overwhelming favourite and had a majority support of caucus, but Ms. Redford won the final vote.
Also high on the list of earners were Alberta's medical examiners, each earning more than $343,000 in base salary in 2013.
The top 2013 base salary went to James Talbot, the chief medical officer of health, at $346,763.
On the political side, Ms. Redford's chief of staff, Farouk Adatia, lead the way, pulling in more than $357,000 in salary and benefits in 2013. Peter Watson, the top civil servant who works for Ms. Redford's cabinet, was the top money earner among mandarins at $342,000 in base salary.
The numbers showed the deputy ministers — the top civil servants in each department — earning salaries ranging in the low $200,000s to just over $300,000.
The numbers for Alberta's 300 Crown prosecutors were scrubbed after a Court of Queen's Bench justice issued an injunction on Thursday preventing them from being published. The judge acted on an application from a prosecutor who is challenging the release of the information.