By Alex McCuaig

Council pay

Council accepts new policy for pay

Nov 2, 2020 | 10:57 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – City council has a new remuneration policy that will see councillors and the mayor’s pay indexed to inflation with base pay calculated through an average of councillor’s in similar-sized municipalities in the province.

The current base pay of councillors is just under $45,000 with the mayor’s set at $135,152, though, elected officials have the option to opt out of annual increases tied to inflation.

The new policy replaces that previously used that saw council set its own pay by resolution and will come into effect following next year’s municipal election.

Mayor Ted Clugston said despite elected officials getting annual raises, “in the last seven out of eight years the majority of council has declined it.”

Coun. Kris Samraj said the council didn’t do a very good job in dealing with the issue when it arose in 2018 as changes to federal tax laws saw the mayor and councillors lose their 30 per cent tax exemption on wages. Council in December 2018 voted to top up wages to make up for the loss.

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“And one of the issue that came up there was we didn’t have a policy that governed what our pay was,” said Samraj.

A review found Medicine Hat was the only municipality among 14 similar-sized cities in the province which had no council pay remuneration policy.

The new policy will see base pay re-examined to ensure it’s set at the average of municipally-elected officials across the province during the final year of council’s four-year term.

“For me, the important point is that this keeps our wage every four years at that average salary, which again, I think is a good place to be,” said Samraj.

According to a 2019 task force report commissioned by the City of Spruce Grove, a comparison of 11 municipalities including Medicine Hat and other similar-sized cities in the province found the average base pay for mayor is $105,861 and $46,453 for councillors.