The first point to make is that Sunshine List's are not a great tool for democracy.  Democracy was doing quite fine before any sunshine list appeared.  Sunshine lists are simply a data dump of figures with no context, background or explanation for the information provided.  In most news articles about the lists, they are reported more like a gossip report on who makes what amount of money rather than providing any context.

The top CEO"s in Canada make 159 times the average workers salary in Canada. The University President made 12 times the average salaries so they are not being paid like the private sector. Many university presidents have had similar deals to Alberta which is you pay them for six and they act as president for five and do some academic research for the sixth.  You can be outraged by being paid for the "admin leave' but in the end it won't reduce the salaries as they will be paid the same amount for five years. In other words, there won't be any savings.