MINTO – Town council has approved a bylaw that increases compensation for members of Minto council following the municipal election this fall.
The new remuneration structure would see council eliminate per diem payments for attending meetings and functions and set councillors’ salaries at $19,200, with the mayor earning $30,700 and the deputy mayor $20,200.
The revised compensation package will also include health benefits and a pension through the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS).
Currently council members receive a base salary of $12,446 per year, with the mayor receiving $18,373 and the deputy mayor $14,816.
All council members also receive:
- $60 for attendance at council and committee of the whole meetings, including budget meetings;
- $98 for attending half-day (four hours or less) meetings; and
- $173 for full-day meetings of council standing committees, conferences and educational sessions.
A report from treasurer Gordon Duff presented at the Jan. 11 meeting points out averaging the remuneration for council from 2018 to 2020, including attendance pay, shows the mayor averaging $28,631 in annual remuneration, the deputy mayor $17,899 and councillors $17,106.
The Municipal Act requires councils to review their remuneration bylaw at a public meeting at least once during the four-year term of office.
Treasurer Gordon Duff stressed the new rates, if approved, would not come into effect until after the next municipal vote on Oct. 24 of this year.
“So it’s not for any existing councillors. It’s to come into effect after the next election,” he stated.
“I know all we hear on the news is the labor shortage.” Duff added being on council is a job too.
“We’re trying to make it as attractive as possible and make it more likely that people who are maybe employed or self-employed or retired or whatever can put in for the next election and we get … high quality candidates as we wish,” Duff explained.
The new proposed annual salary for mayor and councillors mirrors average compensation for those positions among councils across Wellington County. No other local municipality has an elected deputy mayor position.
“A review of all Wellington County municipalities took place and it was noted that our councillors were being underpaid and our mayor was being paid close to the average,” states the report, which notes that among county municipalities only one other municipality, Mapleton, pays per diems for meeting attendance.
The survey shows that Centre Wellington offers the highest compensation package in the county, with the mayor receiving $37,039 and councillors receiving $22,500.
Guelph Eramosa is next, at $34,022 for the mayor and $20,533 for councillors.
Compensation in other municipalities includes:
- Erin: mayor $32,422, councillors $20,133;
- Puslinch: mayor $27,382, councillors $18,450;
- Wellington North: mayor $27,000, councillors $17,323; and
- Mapleton: mayor $26,250, councillors $17,789.
The report shows the increased salaries and related CPP and employer health tax payments would cost the town an additional $12,000 per year, while health benefits would increase annual costs by $16,000 and the OMERS benefit cost would be $13,300.
The report notes a survey of 25 Ontario municipalities showed the provision of OMERS enrolment and health benefits is relatively rare.
“However these enhancements should prove attractive to prospective candidates,” the report states.
Duff explained the OMERS pension for councillors would be based on earnings and time in the plan. Councillors and the municipality would each contribute nine per cent to the plan.
“So it would provide another modest pension benefit. And of course, the longer you’re able to stay on council … the more attractive the benefit would be,” said Duff.
CAO Derrick Thomson pointed out the change to compensation and benefits, like recent moves to facilitate virtual participation in council meetings, is designed to “make it more inclusive for people in the community to join.
“We believe that we should make it inclusive for all folks, regardless of their socio-economic status, to be able to run for council if they if they want to,” said Thomson.
Councillor Ron Elliott asked if councillors could opt out of the health or pension provisions.
“It’s all of council is in or all of council is out,” Duff responded.
Thomson explained council members who already have benefits could use the new program to cover deductible amounts.
Councillor Judy Dirksen expressed concern about abandoning per diem payments because they reward councillors who are active on committees.
“This basically means that somebody could come onto council and not be available for half the committee meetings they’re supposed to be at and yet still collect their full amount,” she observed.
“I agree with her because I sit on a couple of committees and I’m sure councillor Dirksen sits on more,” said councillor Geoff Gunson.
He asked, “If next year … you have a councillor that sits on two or three more committees can we change that they get paid per diem on top of that … to compensate them for maybe sitting on more committees?”
“My suggestion is that if council wants to look at that … they do it outside of this particular conversation,” said Thomson.
“I think this base – your base salary, base renumeration, base benefits. And then, if council wants to have a conversation about that, we want to look at stipends for different committees and at what level, then that’s a conversation you should have.”
Mayor George Bridge pointed out all council members sit as committee of the whole and are ultimately involved in all decisions.
‘There’s going to be sometimes somebody is going to say, ‘Well, you know, somebody isn’t pulling their weight,'” Bridge said.
“But if they’re doing their proper job and reading everything, reading the committee reports, making decisions at council and doing everything they can to be up to speed on all the decisions we’re trying to make, whether they’re at a particular committee meeting or not, I don’t think it matters.
“I mean, it might help out. But at the end of the day, I think we can take that off the plate, I think we’ve got some pretty good people.”
On Jan. 11 council approved a motion to receive the report and directed staff to bring a new remuneration bylaw forward for consideration at its next regular meeting.
At the Jan. 18 meeting, a bylaw implementing the changes was approved by a 6-1 margin in a recorded vote.
The recorded vote was requested by councillor Mark MacKenzie, who voted against the bylaw.
