By Cheryl Jahn

Council Remuneration Rate Settled

Jun 25, 2018 | 10:40 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – A report from the Special Committee on Council Remuneration generated more than an hour’s worth of discussion at last night’s Council meeting. The report has seven recommendations, but the first two were the most contentious.
Currently, a third of the remuneration for Mayor and Council is tax-free. But the federal government is eliminating that as of January 1, 2019. In order to “break even,” the remuneration for those jobs was increased by 22% for the job of Mayor and 12% for Councillors.

“Whenever you talk about pay for yourself, it’s difficult,” said Councillor Frank Everitt. “But I think the way we did this adds validity to it.” He’s referring to the decision to have an independent committee look at the remuneration question.

However, the committee also recommended giving Mayor and Council additional raises as they have not received a raise since 2010. It set out a 4.5% for the Mayor, effective January 1st, and a six percent increase for Councillors.

In the end, they voted in favour of giving the Mayor a salary hike.

“I definitely think that the Mayor is underpaid for what he’s doing. Day and night,” said Councillor Brian Skakun.

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That makes the Mayor’s remuneration $127,889. But Council voted against giving Councillors a salary hike that would have seen Councillors earn $39,764. Rather, a Councillor’s remuneration will be $37,466 as of January 1st.

“This is not my full-time job,” said Councillor Terri Mcconnachie. “This is my privilege.”

The majority of Council agreed. Except for Councillor Jillian Merrick, who argued that to attract qualified candidates for the job, the job of Councillor needs to be paid adequately.

Council also voted against a hike in the Mayor’s vehicle expenses to $1,065 from the current $300 per year.

“That is a little on the high side,” said Mayor Lyn Hall. “I’d like to look at something like $700 or $750.”

Council settled on the latter.

by Cheryl Jahn

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Council Remuneration Rate Settled

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