Pay Check: the salaries and bonuses of Toronto’s five highest-paid CEOs

While most rankings of the super-wealthy focus on net worth, it’s hard not to also be curious about how much the not-very-average Joe earns each year. Enter the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which released its latest list of the country’s 100 highest-paid CEOs earlier this week, based on data collected for 2011. According to the CCPA, the average salary of the top 100 Canadian CEOs was $7.7 million (which, the left-leaning think tank pointed out, means they pocket the average Canadian salary of $45,448 in a little over half a day’s work). However, the five Torontonians who cracked the top 10 make considerably more than the average. We break down local bigwigs’ base salaries and mind-blowing bonuses below.

Frank Stronach
Rank: 1
Total Compensation, including shares and options: $40,984,820
Base Salary: $67,950
Bonus: $38,102,690
Claim to fame: Despite being Canada’s highest paid exec in 2011, the Magna International founder and self-made billionaire has since moved on. Stronach relinquished his Magna directorship in November to focus on taking over the political landscape in his native Austria.

Ned Goodman
Rank: 5
Total Compensation, including shares and options: $15,037,835
Base Salary: $700,000
Bonus: $14,000,000
Claim to fame: The founder and CEO of Dundee Corporation received his staggering $14 million bonus after the Bank of Nova Scotia acquired subsidiary DundeeWealth in early 2011. He reportedly gave the entire amount to charity.

Donald Walker
Rank: 7
Total Compensation, including shares and options: $14,836,948
Base Salary: $307,106
Bonus: $6,852,034
Claim to fame: The feisty Magna International CEO (and Belinda Stronach’s former hubby) is currently overseeing the company’s efforts to move beyond its past issues with corporate governance.

Gerry Schwartz
Rank: 8
Total Compensation, including shares and options: $14,133,703
Base Salary: $1,285,790
Bonus: $12,847,913
Claim to fame: The majority shareholder of Onex isn’t afraid to spend money: he and wife Heather Reisman throw lavish parties in their $16.1 million Rosedale mansion that neighbors have dubbed “Fort Schwartz.” Supporting his scholarship fund, HESEG, and donations to Canadian universities don’t come cheap, either.

Peter Marrone
Rank: 10
Total Compensation, including shares and options: $12,416,999
Base Salary: $1,285,098
Bonus: $4,310,636
Claim to fame: Marrone abandoned investment banking in 2003 to start up Yamana Gold with just 12 employees. By 2011, he was the highest paid CEO in the gold sector. Not too shabby.

(Images: Frank Stronach, Steindy; Ned Goodman, Brock University; Donald Walker, The National Summit; Gerry Schwartz, Arthur Mola/Getty Images Entertainment; Peter Marrone, Ryerson University)