Norfolk councillors approve next-term pay raise

Doug Brunton, Norfolk Ward 5 Councillor.

Luke Edwards

Grant Haven Media

When the next term of council gets sworn in and begins work, they’ll do so with a little more cash coming into their bank accounts.

Councillors narrowly approved an option to increase council remuneration following this term. The raises will be based on compensation for politicians at the provincial level, who in turn received their first raises in 16 years this spring.

The increases will see the next mayor earn just shy of $118,000 a year, with councillors receiving half that number at $59,000. Those will be significant bumps from the roughly $93,000 and $41,000 municipal politicians are earning this year.

However, councillors who supported the raises did so largely along two lines of thought. The first is that the raises are needed to bring them in line with comparators and ensure skilled people are willing to consider a term of council. And the second is that the job itself has evolved and grown in recent years.

“It has dramatically morphed into an entirely different role,” said Mayor Amy Martin.

Between massive agenda packages, lengthy meetings, off-hour calls and emails with constituents and numerous public events, the mayor and others said the job can be all-consuming.

And with Norfolk councillors at the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation, adding $184,000 to the budget to ensure qualified people are convinced to run is important, they said.

“It’s all the more reason to have qualified, adequately compensated folks who are using their noodles making their decisions that are very conscious with taxpayer dollars,” Martin said.

“The folks that come after us will make decisions that are going to impact the future of Norfolk County for decades.”

A staff report that included a list of 10 comparator municipalities showed both mayoral and councillors salaries below average, though the councillor wages were close to the average. The table showed the Norfolk mayor salary of $93,000 to be the third lowest in the group.

Council was split on the decision. Coun. Doug Brunton said he thought they were already adequately compensated and should leave the decision to the next term. Coun. Tom Masschaele concurred about being adequately compensated but differed on who should make the decision.

“I just don’t know if this is the right time to make these adjustments but I do think we need to make this decision now and not pass it on to the next term of council because I want people who want to run for council next term to know exactly what the deal is,” he said.

He also said giving councillors a significant raise when so many constituents are feeling the pinch of rising property taxes and cost of living could send the wrong message.

Masschaele also cautioned against going solely based on the list of comparators. That’s especially the case since neighbouring Haldimand County pays its councillors significantly more than anywhere else. Calling them an outlier, Masschaele said it changes the math a bit.

“If you take Haldimand out, we’re ahead of many comparators,” he said.

A recorded vote passed in a 5-4 result. Brunton, Masschaele, Chris Van Paassen and Michael Columbus voted against the option, while Martin, Kim Huffman, Adam Veri, Alan Duthie, and Linda Vandendriessche voted in support.