Mayor Peter Brown and Coun. Al Jones are justifying a $60,000 “top-up” to council’s pay by passing the blame onto a federal government decision that impacted council’s take-home pay. They aren’t wrong – the federal government opted to tighten its belt and find ways to save in its budget, and the result of that was the elimination of a tax exemption for municipal elected officials. But Coun. Candice Kolson hit the nail on the head when she said, “There is no employee anywhere that is able to adjust their salaries based on what the government decides they want to tax.” What makes council so above the average person that it should fund that shortfall through the pockets of residents? Yes, Brown and Jones say it's not really a pay increase, and $60,000 is negligible when you break the increase down by resident, but that’s not really the point, is it? The approved budget also included a 1.5 per cent cost of living allowance (COLA) increase for City staff. Brown said he would support foregoing the COLA increase, thus denying himself a raise, as he recognized the tough economic times we are in and didn’t want to put the “burden [of the COLA increase] on the taxpayers.” How, then, is the $60,000 not also a burden on taxpayers? We are not saying City council is wrong to be upset by a federal decision that directly impacts it, but those kinds of changes happen to regular citizens all the time, and we can’t wave a magic wand to make someone else pay for it.
