B次元官网网址 city councillors are celebrating the New Year with a pay raise and another week off work.听
A controversial pay hike kicked in on Jan. 1, lifting the salaries for seven of the eight councillors from $50,535 to $58,080.
And the salary for Mayor Tom Dyas rose on Jan. 1 from $135,848 to $145,200.听
There hasn鈥檛 been a city council meeting since Dec. 9. They鈥檒l have had a five week vacation from City Hall by the time the next meeting is held, on Jan. 13.听
The pay raises were approved by councillors in 2024, with a portion of the hike kicking in immediately and the rest effective on Jan. 1. Overall, councillors got a 35 per cent pay raise and the mayorB次元官网网址 pay rose by 15 per cent.听
Councillors who voted in favour of the increase said they were underpaid compared to elected representatives in similarly-sized B次元官网网址 cities. Higher salaries would help attract more candidates for city council at election time, they said.听
鈥淚f we want the best individuals in these chairs in the future, itB次元官网网址 something that we need to do so that at least we鈥檙e on par with regards to communities throughout the province,鈥 Dyas said last March.听
鈥淭o do this job properly, you can鈥檛 be working another full-time job to supplement it,鈥 Coun. Loyal Wooldridge said. 鈥淚 tried to do it. I had to sell my business to do this full time."
But critics said all councillors ran for election in 2022 knowing what the job paid, and they noted that that election drew 32 candidates. 鈥淭his (a salary raise) was not one of our priorities,鈥 Coun. Gord Lovegrove said. 鈥淚 just feel like we鈥檙e helping ourselves with this.鈥
While Lovegrove and some other councillors spoke against the pay raise, Coun. Ron Cannan was the only one to actually decline the extra money.
鈥淲hen I ran for council in 2022, I didn鈥檛 run based on the salary,鈥 Cannan said. 鈥淢ost folks would like to be in a position to give themselves a 35 per cent wage increase. However, council is not self-employed. This is taxpayers鈥 hard-earned money.鈥
Prior to the big pay raises, city councillors had been receiving annual increases in their salary that were tied to the inflation rate.听
By one measure, city councillors鈥 workload is actually much lighter than it used to be with the provincially-ordered elimination of most public hearings for new housing projects.听
From January through August last year, the Tuesday meetings where such applications had previously been considered lasted an average of just 90 minutes, compared to 4-1/2 hours during the same period in 2023.
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