Edmonton city councillors look like they’re going to be voting themselves a pay cut next Tuesday.
The committee on council pay and perks has recommended Mayor Don Iveson get $200,747, the same amount that Mayor Naheed Nenshi gets in Calgary.
Councillors would be set at $113,416.
Those are new figures that factor in that all of a councillor’s pay is taxable. One-third used to be tax free until the feds stepped in and changed the rules.
The committee calculated what members of city council get now, if you convert their salary to being fully taxed. In that case Iveson would be getting $218,200 and the councillors $116,729.
While it is more money in a dollar figure, their final take home pay will be less.
In Iveson’s case, his final figure is $17,453 less, while city councillors would be taking a pay cut of $3,313.
“I fully support their recommendation even though it means a reduction in take home pay for the councillors and myself,” Iveson told reporters.
This is the second scheduled pay cut in a row, since council’s pay is set every year based on the September figure found in Alberta’s Average Weekly Earnings calculations, published by Statistics Canada.
“They look at comparables, they look at what’s going on in the overall economy,” Iveson explained. “We see a down economy, we see wages down. Just like last year when that independent adjustment kicked in and lowered council compensation automatically, just like it should, it’s important to check in on milestones once in a while.”
Asked if he would have liked to have seen his pay be one dollar more than Nenshi’s, Iveson laughed and pointed out what he sees as a significant finding by the committee.
“It’s interesting the committee said the work of the mayor of Edmonton is worth the same as the work of the mayor of Calgary, because historically they would have said, ‘oh it’s worth a little bit less.’ So that’s an interesting signal from the independent committee about the status of the two cities in this day and age, which I’m okay with.”
In the past, after the numbers were calculated in the fall, the new pay rate kicked in in the new year.
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