MAPLETON – A township committee has recommended that Mapleton’s mayor and councillors receive large pay increases this year to compensate for the loss of a federal tax exemption.
The council remuneration committee’s recommendations were revealed during a council meeting on March 12.
Township staff has yet to release the 2018 report, but the recommendations, if approved, will result in significant increases over council’s remuneration last year.
The committee has recommended that:
– councillors receive $16,521 annually, a 19 per cent increase over the 2018 amount of $13,863; and
– the mayor be paid $23,711, an increase of 33% over the 2018 amount of $17,824.
As proposed, total remuneration paid to council, including CPP and other items, will rise 23% this year to $98,954 (from $80,750).
“In order to be fair we believe we’ve got a very hardworking council and it’s only appropriate that they be remunerated appropriately for their hard work and efforts,” stated council remuneration committee member Steve Ilott in a presentation to council.
He explained the committee began working on its suggestion on Jan. 31.
“There are many ways in order to come up with setting compensation. The most common practice is of course to develop what is known as comparator groups,” Ilott said.
The Mapleton committee used the following comparator municipalities: Guelph-Eramosa, Wellington North, Erin, Minto and Puslinch (the committee excluded Centre Wellington because of the size difference between it and Mapleton).
“What we then are recommending to council is to pay the mayor and councillors the average of the comparator groups, which we think is fair and reasonable in the circumstances,” he said.
Retroactive
“We hope that you endorse our recommendation and given the recent changes earlier this year with respect to tax treatment of pay for council … we believe that it should be retroactive to Jan. 1 in order to make everybody whole,” Ilott added.
Councillors Michael Martin and Paul Douglas, as well as Mayor Gregg Davidson, supported a decision to defer passing the committee’s recommendation until the next council meeting on March 26 to give council more time to consider the committee’s full report.
Following Ilott’s presentation, Councillor Marlene Ottens asked what impact the increases would have on the 2019 budget.
CAO Manny Baron said, “We certainly do have room in the budget there. We’ve been below on some projects that we’ve done.
“We do have over a million in the tax stabilization account currently and we expect to see a surplus this year again.”
Baron added, “So the $18,000 is easily absorbed and really won’t make a dent at all into our tax rates.”
In 2017 the federal government introduced measures to eliminate a tax exemption for non-accountable expense allowances paid to elected officials, effective Jan. 1, 2019. The allowance effectively made one-third of council salaries tax-free.
On Dec. 11, Martin suggested a committee be formed to help determine council remuneration.
“A discussion needs to be had regarding what happens in 2019. Do we do nothing, or do we raise the salary to offset the loss of pay with the elimination of the one-third tax exemption?” Baron had asked in a report.
At the time, he indicated that in order to keep council members’ net pay the same, bi-weekly salaries would increase by $9 for councillors and $48 for the mayor.
