Port Coquitlam city council voted to increase remunerations for the mayor and councillors on Tuesday night.
The move was endorsed by almost everyone on council just days after members of the Metro Vancouver district board voted to give themselves a retirement allowance of up to $15,000.
But councillors in Port Coquitlam said there was good reason to boost their remuneration after tax changes that were enacted by the federal government.
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Port Coquitlam council voted to boost the mayor’s remuneration by $25,050 and councillors’ by $5,115 at a meeting on Tuesday night.
The vote came after a staff report titled, “Offset to address the elimination of Municipal Officers’ Allowance.”
That report detailed how, in the 2017 budget, the federal government proposed that a measure known as the “Municipal Officers’ Allowance” be eliminated in 2019.
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The Municipal Officers’ Allowance made it so that one-third of mayor and councillors’ total remuneration was treated as a “non-accountable allowance that is not included in income.”
That means it wasn’t subject to tax or source deductions.
The elimination of the Municipal Officers’ Allowance meant a potential drop in net pay for mayors and councillors, according to the City of Port Coquitlam’s finance director.
This chart shows the difference in net pay with the approved increase, and without it, for mayor and council in Port Coquitlam:
Net pay for Port Coquitlam’s mayor is currently about $87,000. It would have fallen to $74,000 if council hadn’t approved the increase in remuneration.
Councillors currently take home about $37,000; that amount would have fallen to about $33,000 if council didn’t approve the boost.
The adjustment will be effective on Jan. 1, 2019, so the current council won’t benefit from the increase.
Had council not approved it, then the next mayor would have taken a $13,000 cut in take-home pay from what the current one is making.
“I’ve heard many comments about us making the decision on our own pay, and the reality is there isn’t anybody else that makes the decision on our paycheque, remuneration, than us,” Coun. Mike Forrest said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“It’s not mandated by the province, it’s not mandated by the feds, we have to make that determination.”
Coun. Laura Dupont said she was uncomfortable with the idea of shifting the decision on to another council.
“I think it is important that we make this decision, so as to save them from having to do that,” she said.
But not every councillor was on-board with the plan.
Coun. Dean Washington expressed concern that the public would focus on this matter instead of other issues.
“I just think that, for too many people, the ability to talk to people on the doorstep or in the community, that the focus will be on this,” he said.
The pay increase is expected to cost taxpayers $60,000 — but that also takes into account gross remuneration and the employer’s share of benefit costs such as life insurance and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).