2023 Councilor Salaries, Expenses & Bonuses
Over $20,000 spent on travelling and conferences.
Last week, the Sunshine list shed a light on how much West Nipissing’s senior exceutives took in last year. This week, council had to approve their own 2023 salaries and expenses allowing us to see how much they earned and spent last year.
In 2023 councillors’ base salaries were $17,065 while the mayor earned $34,118. The mayor also enjoyed a car allowance of $6,960. Although the base salaries between members of council was the same, the board compensations presented staggering differences in remuneration among councillors.
Board Compensation
When board appointments were made by the mayor in 2022 (and then revised in early 2023), some councillors got much more favourable assignments. While most councillors earned under $2,000 and many made just $450 for sitting on boards, councillor Jamie Restoule raked in $6,078.
Councillor Restoule sits on the Au Chateau board, the Board of Health and DNSSAB. Even though he missed at least three board meetings in 2023, Restoule did not lose any compensation.
DNSSAB Board Compensation
By far the most lucrative board to sit on is the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board (DNSSAB). This board has come under a lot of pressure lately for their lack of attention to the homeless crisis in West Nipissing. They currently meet 10 times per year. For these 10 meetings, the lucky West Nipissing councilor chosen to sit on the board receives $4,153 plus expenses (over $400 per meeting).
Most of DNSSAB’s 2023 meetings took place virtually and lasted under two hours.
Mayor Spent $8,561 on Conferences
The biggest anomaly of the 2023 compensation report is the total spent by the mayor in order to attend various conferences across Canada. All 9 members of council spent $20,851 on conferences and seminars in 2023. The $8,561 (over 40% of the total) spent by Thorne-Rochon is a record breaker for this municipality eclipsing any total ever reached by the former mayor.
One of Thorne-Rochon’s pet projects in 2023 was the creation of a Women’s Caucus which likely helped drive up this number. The closest spender on conferences was Jamie Restoule who spent $3,190. Notably councillor Fern Pellerin did not spend any money on attending out-of-town conferences seemingly more interested in addressing local concerns.
2024 Conference Budget
When council approved the 2024 budget last month, they increased the amount councillors can spend on conferences, travelling and training from $20,000 to $30,000.
This will give Thorne-Rochon 50% more funds to attend her women’s caucus events and various other travels.
Councillor salaries are also scheduled to go up another 4% from a combined total of $170,600 to $177,800.
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We also will not be committing to the expenses incurred for traveling and conference expenditures when we have technology like Skype, Zoom and other forms of technology these civil servants should be utilizing as we all commit to limit our carbon footprint. The hypocrisy sickens the systems they work to mandate. Incompetence gets no attention or support. They have offices, desks and computers and are instructed to use them or lose the funding.
44% increase against 2023 actual expenditure on traveling and conferences! That's ridiculous!