After a feisty debate Monday, West Vancouver’s mayor and council members voted themselves 16 and 12-per cent raises, respectively, to the chagrin of many, we are sure.
It follows similar votes held in municipalities and school boards across the country since the federal government changed tax rules allowing elected members to exempt one third of their pay from income tax. Most councils, however, did the deed with no debate at all.
To be perfectly clear, the amount that mayors and councillors are taking home will be about the same as what it was before. And to be extra clear, this is not an endorsement of any current council’s record. Ultimately, voters have the sacred right to judge their performance.
We question the logic of why the federal tax exemption was ever there in the first place and we don’t have a hard time with municipalities adjusting their pay to ensure no one is forced to take a pay cut. There is, after all, only one taxpayer.
More broadly, we don’t see a problem with councils’ compensation. The hours are long. We know, we sit through the meetings too. More than ever, it seems, being on council opens one up to abuse, especially online where the floor has fallen out of civil discourse entirely.
But in our view, elected officials should only set remuneration policy that takes effect following the next election, whenever that may be. That policy would ensure the decision is arm’s-length and no one can be accused of giving themselves a pay raise, which remains the purview of executives in the private sector.
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