Council compensation policy sees roughly 10K raise for councillors, 15K for mayor

closed session

by Colin Smith

The pay of Morinville Council members is going up following the adoption of a Council Remuneration Policy at its October 22 regular meeting.

Councillors’ base honorariums will now be $35,285.88, up from $25,762.40. The mayor will be paid $65,667.09 per year, compared to the previous $50,796.80 year base. The proposed increases are 36.9% for councillors and 29.27% for the mayor.

The hike follows the compensation policy aim to pay Morinville Council members at the market median rate for comparable municipalities, the 50th percentile, so that half are paying more than Morinville and half paying below.

Adoption of the policy follows a compensation review that showed the Mayor and Councillors are paid significantly less than the median for elected officials in comparative Alberta municipalities.

The policy also includes some changes to per diem rates for meetings and activities in which Council members are involved.

The aim of the policy is to provide the framework to support fair and equitable remuneration while creating a consistent approach for budget planning.

“One of the things this policy does is strengthen clarification to produce guidelines, which I am very thankful for, and clean up those rules to make it very easy to understand,” said Mayor Barry Turner.

“In addition, it looked at setting Council’s wages at the median of comparator municipalities…so it’s putting Council and Administration under the same philosophy.”

Incorporated into that was a rise in Council honorariums to account for the loss of a tax exemption, discussions of which had been ongoing for months. The compensation review indicated that most other municipalities had adjusted the pay of their council members to account for the change.

See additional 2020 budget coverage here.

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27 Comments

  1. I think Counsel should take heed from the provincial gov’t. They took a 5% pay reduction and the Premier a 10% reduction. Hard times are coming with the liberal Gov’t still running the show and as I understand it some big budget cuts are coming. Albertans are going to have to pinch their pennies a bit more.

  2. “Incorporated into that was a rise in Council honorariums to account for the loss of a tax exemption”. I’m sorry but no, this was already voted in back at the Aug 27th meeting. Pay was increased then to maintain the after tax level.

  3. I have to say that Morinville Council was hugely underpaid. This is deserved. The members of Council were paid at the 30th percentile and the Mayor even worse compared to other councils. They are going to the median. This should have been done many years ago when I served. Your taxes are going up due to new staff positions and the fact that the cost of goods and services increase annually. Council deserves this.

    • Rob you are not on council anymore, no need for deception, lol. Taxes going up because of rec centre and wage increases.

    • Just curious how your new business is doing. Can you afford to give yourself a 36% raise…deserved or not? There are many people working that deserve more than they are getting paid but are taking reductions just to keep their job and keep businesses running. And how about Morinville’s general finances? are they actually in a position to be giving raises or should they be looking at ways to reduce expenses, not just raise taxes. Given the fact that you are now running a business you should know that.

  4. There needs to be a long hard look at this policy. It does not really matter what other areas are doing. What can this community support? Not tax increases and then an increase in council compensation. Where do we think this money is going to come from??? People who are already stuggling to keep their homes and pay bills. The Budget from the province is coming down today and there are going to be cuts. Towns and cities need to look at their spending because there probably will not be any more grants to assist to support the community.

  5. Council is asking for Our taxes go up to pay for their raise. They chose to run for council. There is no accountability. If not re-elected they still have the money.

  6. Wow. Wish I could vote myself a 36% pay raise. But since I can’t do that I will vote for myself to pay 36% less in taxes.

  7. Inflation rate is 1-2% annually. Do these raises outpace inflation? If so ( and they do!) council has a responsibility to keep costs in line. Economics 101!

    As stated previously, increasing taxes is a short sighted solution that cannot be sustained……

    The whole plan to correct the current issues is flawed. Increasing business taxes and driving away the solution to the problem + absurd raises is irresponsible. Take your plan back to the drawing board, then come back to us with a valid approach!

  8. Sure wish I could approve my raises then force everyone else to pay for them. Good system we have. But we will have more and new Xmas lights. 2021 will not come soon enough regarding municipal elections.

    • The Alberta Conservative Premier has put down the first part of his budget and it doesn’t look good for working people or University students.

  9. FUCK YOU MORONVILLE COUNCIL. We’re being taxed to death federally, provincial, and now you you pricks are upping our taxes AGAIN!!!! Do you really think this is the right time to be increasing taxes to line your pockets at our expense.

  10. People RELAX. This pay raise is an easy fix. All they have to do is put more photo radar out there! Do you think this council doesn’t have this figured out already? Even the councilors at Sturgeon County got a big raise…..it seems it’s the thing to do today when the economy is tanking. Reminds me of what that woman from France said “Let them eat cake”

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