‘Unacceptable’: Kelowna council pay hike criticized by taxpayers federation

Kelowna city council’s decision to usher in a pay raise for themselves while their constituents are “struggling” to make ends meet is unacceptable, says B.C.’s director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“Normal families in Kelowna are really struggling right now,” Carson Binda said in the wake of a Monday decision by Kelowna council to increase will see the mayor’s salary rise to $145,000 from $126,497 while councillors will see their wages rise 30 per cent to $58,080 from $42,992 a year.

“Every month, the Central Okanagan Food Bank in Kelowna is seeing a record-breaking 9,000 visits. The median rent in Kelowna has gone up eight per cent in the last year; it’s now more than $2,200 a month,” Binda said.

The current rental cost in Kelowna is pegged at 15 per cent higher than the national average, according to CMHC.

“When normal families are having a tough time keeping a roof over their heads, when they’re coming to visit food bank just to feed their kids, it’s unacceptable for politicians to be giving themselves a huge pay raise,” Binda said.

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He noted that property taxes in Kelowna are rising by more than $100 this year, with a recently approved 4.75 per cent increase approved.

Kelowna isn’t known for being a city where incomes are high, despite higher-than-national costs to live there.

Figures from the 2021 Statistics Canada census indicate the median annual income of a man in the Central Okanagan was roughly $48,000, while a woman made $36,800.

The national average at that time was between $54,00 and $59,000.

Binda pointed out that the work of a councillor — which is supposed to be  40 per cent workload of a mayor’s full-time job — is making more from a part-time job than most people in Kelowna can make in a full-time position.

That said, with the pay increase, council wages are more on par with other large B.C. cities and remain higher than neighbouring cities.

In Vernon, the mayor makes $116, 307 and council makes $43, 033.

In West Kelowna, the mayor makes $88,240 and council makes $30,884.

In Penticton, the mayor makes $79,300 while councillors make $27,465.

Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas defended the choice to approve the pay raise, saying those who voted for it had to show some “courage” in what can only be described as an “awkward position.”

The discovery of the pay disparity was made in the wake of a study out of Victoria.

That’s when they looked into it further and found that Kelowna politicians were being paid at a rate well behind their contemporaries.

It was about a decade ago when the council of the day decided it was going to use consumer price indexing as a measure of pay increases. But Dyas said that formula simply doesn’t work and that’s why Kelowna politicians have fallen behind.

“What’s happened with consumer price indexing over the last 10 years is it has been below two per cent,” he said.

“So that formula did not work to keep up with what other communities have done throughout the province.”

Dyas said he and council members work very hard to address community concerns and want to “make certain that whoever sits in the chairs (they) occupy in the future are able to do so knowing that they’re getting compensated accordingly.”

This follows along with concerns raised during the meeting that low pay would amount to fewer qualified candidates in the years ahead.

Binda, however, scoffed at the notion that a higher wage is the only way to attract new, qualified councillors to the role.

“In the last municipal election in Kelowna, there were more than 30 candidates running for those spots,” Binda said.

“There’s no shortage of qualified candidates who want the chance to serve their communities. Every single person who put their name on the ballot knew what the wage was going to be.

“It didn’t deter more than 30 people last time and I don’t think it would deter future candidates who are really interested in serving their communities.”

The city said the total cost of the pay hike will be $139,413.60 and will be funded from financial savings identified through the city’s digital transformation strategy.