CORNWALL – A report brought to the council at the July 23 SDG Counties meeting, recommended several changes to council remuneration including pay and expenses.
The report from administration highlighted a 0.4 per cent increase in current council pay for this year, and tying future annual pay increases to the current pay policy for staff. That policy uses the Consumer Price Index to set the increase. If the CPI is between one and three per cent, the actual CPI rate is the pay increase rate. If the CPI is less than one, one per cent is the increase, while any CPI exceeding three per cent is capped at three per cent. Council pay previously was not tied to any automatic increase, but rather set once per term review as required under the Municipal Act.
Meeting allowances will also be increased, and a new half-date meeting rate added. Conference expenses, and mileage expenses will also be increased, while the amount budgeted to the annual Warden’s Banquet will be increased from $5,000 to $7,000 – however some of that budget is offset by ticket sales.
Counties’ councillors currently receive $15,663.42 as their annual remuneration, plus expenses, the warden receives $41,951.48 as head of council.
A comparison chart of the 13 municipalities in the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus show that SDG has the third-lowest compensation for elected officials. Kawartha Lakes leads the councils in the EOWC with councillors earning $49,506 and the warden earning $115,117. Kawartha Lakes, and Prince Edward are both single-tier municipalities without a lower-tier township structure. Neighbouring Prescott-Russell leads all the two-tier county municipalities, paying councillors $47,819 and their warden $71,726. Leeds and Grenville pay councillors $29,024 and their warden $56,618.
“It’s a topic that I think we all find kind of uncomfortable to talk about sometimes because you have to set your own remuneration or your own pay,” said Warden Martin Lang. “But I think sometimes it does need to be talked about, to keep things current and to keep the interest in people wanting to be on county council and on our local councils.”
Councillor Jamie MacDonald (North Glengarry) agreed it was uncomfortable, “but I’m not feeling uncomfortable. I feel that we need to be paid properly for what we do and in this day of social media there are more and more pressures being put on us.”
MacDonald took issue with the half-day pay for up to four hours, asking why council was taking “a step backwards.” He explained with travel time and some meetings taking two hours or more, that elected officials have to take a half-day off their jobs.
MacDonald also pointed out that the average remuneration for councillors (excluding single-tier Kawartha Lakes and Prince Edward) is $25,000.
“We are already having a hard enough time getting people to put their names in our local councils and put their names forward to run for politics, and it doesn’t help when the compensation is very low.”
Councillor Carma Williams (North Glengarry) agreed with MacDonald adding, “We need to acknowledge that the days of municipal councillors volunteering their time, that it’s their duty to give their time for nothing or for little, in my view is over. Our time is as valuable as anybody else’s and we ought to be compensated accordingly.”
Councillor Theresa Bergeron (North Dundas) also agreed with MacDonald, saying that a further review should be done.
“I don’t think Leeds and Grenville is that much bigger than SDG and if you compare – we’re almost at half their salary,” she spoke at council. “I’m not saying we should double our salary, but it needs to come up and maybe we should vote or decide on that today.”
Councillor Tony Fraser (North Dundas) suggested using the formula that Prescott-Russell follows for its council remuneration, based on population and growth. There, the Warden compensation is calculated at three-quarters the population of the county or 75 cents per resident. Councillors earn one-half of the population total of the county, or 50 cents per resident. Statistics Canada reported P-R’s population in 2021 at 95,639, SDG Counties has 66,792 residents.
Councillors Andrew Guindon (South Stormont) suggested having an outside consultant report on this, given the optics of a possible pay increase.
“It would change the game,” Fraser explained.
Counties CAO Maureen Adams suggested that any revisions or possible increased remuneration could be phased in at the direction of council.
Staff will take feedback to council and bring a revised report at the August meeting.
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