Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam is raking in the big bucks after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau awarded her with a 22% pay raise this week.

While historic inflation levels are outpacing most Canadians’ salaries, Tam will be collecting $324,000 a year from taxpayers’ pockets. 

Blacklock’s Reporter was the first to break the story that the cabinet approved the $59,400 pay hike. Before the raise, Tam made $265,000 a year just to do her job. 

The bump puts Tam’s earnings just behind the salary of Trudeau, who earns $357,800 as prime minister. 

In April, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reported in a study that 64% of workers’ earnings are falling well behind rising inflation rates. 

“Contrary to suggestions that workers’ rising wages are contributing to rising inflation, the opposite is true: most Canadian workers’ wages are falling behind the rising cost of living,” senior economist of the CCPA David Macdonald said. 

“The theory that workers’ wages are driving inflation does not apply here. Rather, inflation is being driven primarily by rising commodity prices, excess corporate profits, supply chain issues and geopolitical disruptions with workers getting run over just like everyone else.”

Tam has been back in the news as of late, fearmongering about a dreaded seventh wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

“The pandemic is not over. We think that it is very likely that we will get some more viral activity in the future, and we can’t predict exactly how big the next wave is, but I think we need to prepare,” said Tam. 

Earlier this month, a Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) official could not cite what numbers the Liberal government was relying on to keep its remaining mandates. 

“As I mentioned, this is a combination of different metrics. “There aren’t any specific numbers, which we could actually say [this is over]. Because it depends on the activity of the virus in the different communities, as well as different settings,” said PHAC President Harpreet Kochal.  

“And also the protection that is provided to the population from vaccination and other public health measures like masking, handwashing and others. So, there’s a multitude of [a] combination of factors, which allows us to take those kinds of public health advice options.”