By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Red Deer city council votes to counter tax changes with salary increase

Nov 26, 2018 | 5:45 PM

Red Deer city council has decided to up their salaries to avoid losing income due to federal tax changes.

As of January 1, salaries and allowances for elected officials in Canada will no longer be one-third tax exempt. As a result, the annual take-home pay would drop by more than $12,500 for Red Deer’s mayor and just over $5,800 for city councillors if their current salaries remained the same.

Instead, a 5-4 vote by council will see them take home the same amount of pay they’re currently receiving.

“I think first and foremost, the most important message is that the last thing that council wants to be discussing – particularly in this time of crisis, with crime challenges, social challenges, health challenges –  the last thing we want to be discussing is council compensation,” Mayor Tara Veer said. “Because of the federal legislative change, we did have to respond before 2019.”

Councillor Lawrence Lee said many members of the public don’t understand the entire role members of council play on a daily basis.

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“It’s expenses that are occurred in the disposition of your duties. What we do on a normal basis may not be what other people with a 9-5 job do,” he said. “I really meant it. I was okay with whichever way council decided to go this evening. But if we were to actually log all the expenses incurred on a daily basis with respect to meals, coffees, meetings, mileage, and all those other things, I think the public would be surprised to see how many incidental expenses are being incurred right now.”

Lee estimates his council duties take up 40-50 hours of his time each week on a consistent basis. Councillor Ken Johnston said it’s probably closer to 60 hours on occasion.

The mayor’s salary will go from $112,198.94 to $131,940.43 and city councillor salaries from $60,466.44 to $68,618.16. The net pay difference will be additional $1.94 annually for the mayor and $2.86 for councillors.

There will be a standard review of council compensation next summer, which marks the midway point of the current council term.

Councillors Michael Dawe, Tanya Handley, Vesna Higham and Dianne Wyntjes voted against the changes.