OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is defending his decision to pay the CEOs of two new government offices annual salaries that are higher than those of his own cabinet ministers.

Douglas Guzman, the head of a new defence procurement office, and Dawn Farrell, the head of the new Major Projects Office, will each make more than $577,000 a year — not counting performance pay.

Carney says their responsibilities are enormous and include things like making major military procurement decisions and reviewing industrial development projects worth “tens and tens of billions of dollars of economic activity.”

In a social media post this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Carney’s appointment of Guzman, who formerly worked in senior positions at the Royal Bank of Canada and Goldm

See Full Page