A third-party review has concluded that Greater Sudbury city council members’ remuneration is pretty well on mark when tested against comparator municipalities in Ontario.
During Tuesday’s finance and administration committee meeting of city council, the public heard from representatives from Toronto-based Gallagher Benefit Services Group Inc. They were enlisted to conduct a third-party review of city council members’ remuneration.
Of their eight recommendations, city staff recommended that council adopt seven.
The lone recommendation struck from the third-party report was that councillor wages increase by 2.5 per cent to align with the market median of $50,689.
In his report responding to the Gallagher review, city Corporate Services general manager Kevin Fowke noted the consultants factored in the City of Hamilton’s full-time city council positions, where Greater Sudbury’s are classified as part-time. If Hamilton were struck from the report, Greater Sudbury’s remuneration level becomes the median among remaining comparators.
The mayor’s base pay of $151,714 was close to the market median $145,308, so was recommended to remain as-is.
Although mayor and council's base pay remuneration will remain status-quo, a $75 per day stipend for conferences and training over and above expenses was added to the mix alongside a per diem meal expense increase to $80 per day (from $72) when attending out of town business where meals aren’t included.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc put forward an argument that the per-day stipend to attend conferences and training should be $120, since hiring someone to look after kids or elderly parents costs more than $75.
His push for an amendment fell flat after he failed to get a seconder to support it.
One area in which Greater Sudbury city council remuneration exceeds that of comparator municipalities in the awarding of annual stipends in addition to base pay to compensate members appointed to committees, which most municipalities do not do.
These mostly apply to the chairs of committees, ranging from $1,488 for the community and emergency services committee chair to $5,778 for the planning committee chair. Planning committee members receive a stipend of $1,916.
Annual remuneration increases will continue to follow existing city policy, which is equal to that provided to the city’s non-union staff, typically between two and three per cent, Fowke said.
Greater Sudbury city council remuneration levels became a campaign issue in the 2022 civic election, at which time most mayoral candidates pledged to take a pay cut if elected.
Mayor Paul Lefebvre followed through on this pledge early into his tenure, slashing his remuneration from a projected $179,429.67 in 2023 to $143,000.
The pay cut pledges came in response to public criticism following the revelation that then-mayor Brian Bigger’s salary and benefits increased by 60 per cent in four years.
Between wages and fringe benefits, Bigger’s remuneration jumped from $143,347 in 2016 to $228,873 in 2020, which put his earnings in the same ballpark as Premier Doug Ford.
Pay increases followed the same policies then as they currently do, with one exception in 2019. At the time, Canada Revenue Agency guidelines changed so that one-third of elected officials’ pay was no longer considered tax-exempt. Rather than take the hit themselves, councillors’ pay went up by approximately $6,000 to make up the difference while the mayor’s pay jumped by $45,000.
Comparable municipalities with populations greater than 100,000 within the Gallagher report discussed on Tuesday included Thunder Bay, Brantford, Chatham Kent, Barrie, Kingston, London, Guelph, Hamilton and Windsor.
Tuesday’s decision to approve seven of eight Gallagher report recommendations still needs to be ratified by city council as a whole during their next city council meeting on Oct. 21. However, since city council is composed of the same 13 people as the finance committee that unanimously approved the decision on Tuesday, it’s likely to pass.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.