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Committee votes to increase remuneration

Motion to defer pay raise until 2026 budget defeated, but remuneration will now be based on the lower of three per cent or cost of living allowance
Stratford City Hall
Stratford City Hall

The pay increase for mayor and council was approved at the January 27 regular council meeting during a finance and labour relations sub-committee meeting, but not before a last minute effort on behalf of the mayor to save a few dollars from the 2025 budget.

Mayor Martin Ritsma tabled a motion that would have seen the city defer an increase to the remuneration for mayor and council until 2026 – a move that would’ve saved a little more than $9,000 already included in this year’s budget. His motion was defeated, but a second motion that would see an automatic yearly increase of either three per cent or whatever the cost of living allowance (COLA) is was approved. While the intent of the mayor’s motion was clear, the motion was met with skepticism by councillors.

Leading that charge was Coun. Bonnie Henderson, who said she’s only seen one other increase to remuneration since she was first elected nearly 20 years ago.

“It’s very hard as a council to ask for a raise but when staff and other municipalities get a raise we end up being so far behind,” she said. “I’ve been on council since 2006 and I only remember us getting a raise in 2019. We’ve gotten COLA but of course that’s not quite the same if you compare council remuneration to what staff is getting – it only works out to about $100 a year. I’m glad that we decided to make a motion to take less of either COLA or a three per cent raise.”

Henderson appreciated that Ritsma had the taxpayer’s best interests in mind when he proposed the motion, adding she felt the importance of addressing remuneration at least once per term for each council.

Committee chair Mark Hunter understood Ritsma’s motion for the same reasons Henderson laid out and admitted that while it can be tempting to postpone expenditures, it has to be done in a way that makes sense.

“The requested new communications position (in addition to the existing position) is a good example – there was some conversation regarding the amount of time that Mike (Beitz) spends reviewing and responding to social media posts,” Hunter said. “It makes sense to review the current workload and to review whether to continue or alter that workload. If we continue to spend as much time on social media as we do now, a second communications position makes sense. If we lessen the social media presence, we may not need that position, so it makes sense to postpone that new position until a fuller review is completed. With councillors’ pay, we aren’t proposing any changes so postponing a salary increase just moves the issue down the road. At some point, some level of catch-up will be needed to keep salaries in line with where they should be.”

Hunter likened that issue to the one surrounding work on the city’s infrastructure, particularly the roads: there was a time when Stratford invested less in road work to help keep the tax rates stable, and now they find themselves in a situation of having to get caught up and are required to do more work than that had previously.

Coun. Jo-Dee Burbach echoed the sentiments of Henderson and Hunter, saying a deferral would only have maintained the status quo while devaluing the work councillors do.

“It certainly doesn’t address the problem of attracting more diverse candidates – not increasing council remuneration likely works for individuals who are retired or otherwise don’t need to rely on this income to make ends meet, but some of us are not in that position,” she said. “As a business owner and a single parent, I admit that it can be quite challenging to run a business, attend 10-12 city-related meetings per month and manage a household plus try to remain involved in community events and activities. As we noted during the discussion, councillors earn just above minimum wage for the work we do, not even factoring in the reading, research and communications that also take time. I believe that it’s worthwhile work and I’m happy to do it, but I do feel that the low pay does deter some great candidates from putting their name forward, especially younger folks and women.”

A recap of the exact increases mayor and council will be getting can be found in our story here.



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