West Nipissing Councillors & Administrators Seek to Increase Their Paychecks
Council agrees to pay a consultant to review councillor, mayoral and administration salaries.
This week West Nipissing council voted unanimously on a resolution to hire an outside consultant to examine their paychecks. This municipality which is facing unprecedented budget constraints had to dip significantly into reserves for the second year in a row in order to cap the annual property tax increase at 5%.
Residents have seen their taxes go up 21% since 2019 and the municipality is likely facing a near double-digit increase when budget deliberations begin in the coming months. Despite this, council decided that now would be a good time to review remunerations.
In some cases outside remuneration reviews have cost municipalities over $50,000 and this expense was not accounted for in the 2023 WN budget. Since outside consultants want to be hired by other councils, they almost always find the comparables (among 400+ Ontario municipalities) to justify increases. When Grey County councillors undertook this process earlier this year, they were able to give themselves a 13% raise.
At the October 3rd council meeting when the CAO originally made the suggestion that council approve this project he stated “It’s very self-serving for you to agree to this”. (Oct 3rd council meeting, time:2:04:30)
Deputy Mayor Jamie Restoule did have some reservation stating that “It could be perceived as a difficult conversation because we’re talking about our own paychecks”. But he stated that if the process was done where council was at an arm’s length away (i.e. a consultant told them to raise their paychecks) then it would be fine. (Oct 3rd council meeting, time:2:06:30)
Provincial Grant to “Reduce Expenses” To Be Used to “Raise Expenses”
So how will they pay for it? At the council meeting, the CAO proposed that the municipality still had “efficiency funds” that could be committed to this project. The Deputy Mayor echoed the CAO and said that “we have a grant thats in place and it’s not costing us any money.”
The efficiency fund was a grant provided by the Ontario government to small municipalities back in 2019 to help them improve service delivery and efficiency. West Nipissing received $725,000 to dedicate to various projects back then and has an unknown amount left to spend.
In their press release announcing this funding, the provincial government stated, "This funding will help small and rural municipalities improve how they deliver services and reduce the ongoing costs of providing those services".
This fund can be used for any project that will help improve services in the community. Such as reopening the municipal office in Verner. However instead of attempting to find efficiencies or REDUCE expenses, West Nipissing council will try INCREASING them.
How Much Do Councillors Make?
This issue was a contentious one a year when some councillors wanted to evaluate this topic but it faced strong opposition from long-time mayor Joanne Savage. When objecting to a costly salary review, Savage stated:
I don’t think we should be entertaining this project. We have a lot of pending issues trying to get caught up. We have other big issues. I don’t think people who run for office do it for the money, rather it’s to make a positive difference in their communities.
The motion was voted down. At the time West Nipissing councillors earned between $15,500 to $15,800 per year for their role on council. West Nipissing has roughly 24 council meetings per year so the current salary works out to approximately $650 per meeting. Councillors also earn additional compensation for the various boards they sit on bringing their total compensation closer to $20,000. The mayor receives a base salary of $30,000 plus a monthly car allowance.
Councillor salaries also automatically go up every year according to inflation. In 2023, their salaries went up 6.1%. More than double the increase that was negotiated for unionized staff in 2022 (2.75% per year for 3 years).
Councillor remuneration was a highly debated item in Sudbury last year during their election when some candidates promised to bring down these expenses (not raise them). One Sudbury candidate pointed out that in some Northern Ontario communities such as Mattawa, councillors only make $7,500 a year and the mayor only makes $10,000.
Salary Review for Non-Unionized Staff
Along with a review of councillor salaries, the CAO proposed to council that they also hire someone to evaluate his own paycheck along with all non-unionized staff.
The timing of this request seemed odd considering West Nipissing’s HR expenses have already skyrocketed in recent years. As I reported earlier this year, the biggest expense in our budget year-after-year is Human Resources. In 2023 HR expenses went up 8% (to $9.12M). This line has gone up 30% since 2019 when the municipality only spent just $6.99M on HR.
West Nipissing’s representation on the annual Sunshine List also jumped 30% this year. In 2022, WN had 13 employees on the list of employees earning more than $100k. In 2023 it had 17 including the CAO who saw 24% pay raise since 2019 and now makes more than all comparable municipalities.
The CAO clarified at the October 3rd council meeting that salary reviews only lead to salaries going up.
“The consultation would make suggestions of corrections on salaries which would be upwards. There wouldn’t be any downward corrections…”
So council agreed and the “efficiency funds” will be used to evaluate how to increase remuneration packages.
In a memo presenting this resolution, the CAO indicated that “the needs of the municipality have changed since the last review”. He is certainly right. Since the last review, West Nipissing no longer manages a police force or a trailer park. They also manage less offices. And in the last 10 years, the population size has barely changed. According to Statistics Canada it was 14,149 in 2011 and 14,583 in 2021. The one thing that has changed drastically is the amount of taxes people pay (double the rate of inflation over the last 5 years).
Ironically when Ontario announced that millions would be given to towns like West Nipissing to become “more efficient”, the sub-heading was “Respect Taxpayer Dollars”. And now those very funds will be used to see how West Nipissing can increase their expenses and raise municipal salaries.
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So where is all the money going? My friend has a 1M$ home in London Ontario and pays 3600$/yr. Crazy