Do you think Vancouver city councillors, who earn $67,994 a year, make enough money?
I know most of them also supplement their income with duties as Metro Vancouver reps and some still have jobs.
But let’s just focus on what they pull in as councillors.
I bring up this issue because Mayor Gregor Robertson did.
After he delivered his inauguration speech Monday, he told reporters in a scrum that this year he wants a review of compensation for councillors, including pensions and benefits.
I’ll get to his reasons in a few paragraphs.
First, some background…
As regular readers will recall, I wrote about this issue earlier this year when I told you that mayor and council was getting a 3.24 per cent pay hike. That means Robertson is earning $154,346 this year, which is a decent jump over last year’s salary of $149,503. Councillors get the $67,994 I mentioned in my question to begin this piece. That’s a jump from $65,860 in 2013.
Until this year, increases would kick at the turn of the calendar.
That was decided in 1995 when the council of the day agreed with recommendations reached by the independent “Councillors’ Compensation Review Panel” which concluded councillors and the mayor should be paid more money.
Specifically, the panel said councillors should be compensated at the same rate as an average full-time employee in the Vancouver area. I guess that’s $67,994, which seems high. The panel said the compensation should be adjusted annually to track changes in wages as reported by Statistics Canada.
The panel recognized the mayor should be paid 2.27 times the rate of a councillor and that a councillor acting as deputy mayor should be paid a supplement equal to 22 per cent of the mayor’s monthly salary.
The panel cited how the work of mayor and council is “demanding and important” and requires the politicians to work long hours. So came the pay hikes.
But this year, the formula for deciding increases changed because data traditionally collected by Statistics Canada to track wages was instead gathered under the voluntary National Household Survey, which replaced the mandatory long-form census.
I recall talking to Vision Coun. Raymond Louie about this. His concern was the survey would not be as accurate at the census or reflective of wage earners. So what city manager Penny Ballem decided was “to continue using the change in the average weekly wage for B.C., as has been used in the interim years (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013) between census dates” and use that formula to set pay hikes for this year.
Now to the mayor’s reasons for a review…
“Frankly, the compensation system is 20 years old,” Robertson said. “And you look at how that job has changed. It used to be a part-time job and people were generally having second jobs to make a go in Vancouver as a councillor. Nowadays, with the advent of email and social media and the extraordinary need for more engagement in the neighbourhoods, it’s an intense job for people to carry.”
Added Robertson: “It’s appropriate that we do review that in the year ahead and have a third party assess whether that compensation is fair, whether the pensions and benefits are an issue to be dealt with.”
Last time I checked, councillors in Toronto earn $105,000 per year and Edmonton councillors pull in $96,323 per year. Those cities also have ward systems and larger populations.
In other council news, Robertson successfully moved a motion at Monday’s inaugural council meeting to appoint Louie as acting mayor for the year and Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer as deputy mayor for 2015.
Historically, councillors rotated monthly in these two roles.
Robertson’s motion passed despite calls from NPA councillors George Affleck, Elizabeth Ball, Melissa De Genova and Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr to postpone a decision until a third party reviews the roles of deputy mayor and acting mayor.
So far, the mayor said there will be no compensation change for those positions than what is already in place. But that could change under a review, which Robertson is expected to provide more detail in January.
Until then, send us a letter and tell us what you think.
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