Some Calgary city councillors have proposed a motion to freeze the council’s pay increases at 2024 rates until 2030.
Sonya Sharp will be introducing the motion next Tuesday. She has support from three other councillors — Dan McLean, Andre Chabot, and Terry Wong.
Sharp said that the city council should not be accepting automatic pay increases when Calgarians are struggling with the cost of living.
“Leadership isn’t just about talking about fiscal responsibility – it’s about demonstrating it. This freeze shows we’re serious about aligning council’s actions with the realities Calgarians face every day,” said Sharp.
In fact, there will be a slight reduction in salary for councillors because Sharp is requesting that the pay be scaled back to 2024 rates.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek joined the fray, saying she will ask the council to freeze salaries for 2025 on Tuesday. However, Gondek made no mention of the freeze stretching further.
“Calgarians are struggling with higher grocery bills, increasing utility rates, & inflation. If we’re asking City Administration to find efficiencies & Calgarians to stretch their budgets, we must hold ourselves to the same standard,” said Gondek.
She said that now was not the time for elected officials to take a pay raise.
At the start of the new year, the mayor and councillors received a 3.07% pay raise. They have been granted raises totalling 9.49% since 2022. Councillors are paid $124,462.60 annually, and the mayor is paid $220,298.83.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta director Kris Sims said that freezing the pay raises is a good start, but that the city council should take it a step further by refocusing on the core purpose of municipal government – to keep the streets and infrastructure safe, clean, and in good repair.
“Being a city councillor was never supposed to be a full-time dream career for politicians who want to save the world,” said Sims. “It was supposed to be a part-time role for people like small business owners, retired teachers, and former cops, so a stipend for their ‘public service’ was just fine.”
Based on the most recent update from Apr. 2023, Calgary city councillors make more than provincial MLAs. Calgary’s mayor makes much more than the province’s premier, Danielle Smith, who brings in around $185,000 annually.
The council previously implemented pay increases based on the Alberta Average Weekly Earnings, which has been in place since 2007.
Because the previous pay increases were approved on the average weekly earnings formula, the motion would require a two-thirds majority voting in its favour to pass.
A previous poll showcased that Calgary had the lowest mayoral and city council approval ratings among major cities nationwide.
Calgarians previously bashed Gondek on social media for her claiming that there was no room for budgetary cuts. They offered five cost-cutting ideas. One of the ideas was to cut the salary of the mayor and the city council.
While not technically a budget cut, the freeze might suggest that Gondek and the council listened to its residents’ concerns.
Other suggestions included removing diversity, equity, and inclusion positions within the city and abandoning the economic pitfall of electric buses.
