The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is taking the Bank of Canada to Federal Court in an effort to force the release of records showing how much the central bank pays its top officials.

The challenge follows the Bank of Canada’s refusal to disclose compensation paid to its governors and senior deputy governors between 2012 and 2023, including salaries, bonuses and performance pay, after an access-to-information request sought the records.

“The Bank of Canada is a Crown corporation owned by Canadians and Canadians have a right to know how much money its top officials are taking,” said Devin Drover, the CTF’s general counsel.

“Access-to-information laws exist so Canadians can scrutinize how government institutions operate and the Bank of Canada is violating that fundamental principle by concealing records.”

The bank argued the information is exempt from disclosure under the “personal information” provision of the federal Access to Information Act.

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Open by Default founder Matthew Malone filed a complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner over the refusal. While the commissioner concluded that some information had been improperly withheld, the report largely sided with the government’s position.

The CTF is now partnering with Malone to challenge that decision in Federal Court, arguing that compensation paid to senior officials at public institutions should not be treated as private information.

The group is asking the court to order the Bank of Canada to release the records.

Provincial governments in Canada routinely publish senior public sector salaries, and other countries provide similar transparency.

The Bank of England, for example, discloses the exact salary of its governor under freedom-of-information rules. When Prime Minister Mark Carney served as governor of the Bank of England, his total compensation exceeded $1 million Canadian.

“It’s wrong that Canadians can’t find out how much they’re paying the Bank of Canada governor when it’s easy to get that information in other countries,” said Franco Terrazzano, the CTF’s federal director. “It’s particularly ironic that a Google search shows how much the Bank of England paid Carney, but the Bank of Canada won’t say how much it paid him.”

Terrazzano said the group will continue pressing for transparency from Crown corporations whose executives are paid with public funds.

The CTF’s Federal Court application has been filed and seeks an order compelling the Bank of Canada to release the compensation records.