The outgoing Gibsons council is trying to settle the thorny question of what the incoming council should be paid before the election.
Several local governments around the province have been considering adjustments to mayor and council pay to compensate for the end of a federal tax-free allowance.
According to a report from director of finance David Douglas, the current remuneration of $31,485 per year for the mayor and $14,601 for councillors puts Gibsons ninth out of 23 similarly sized municipalities when it comes to the mayor’s pay and 14th out of 23 for council pay. At a population of around 4,600, Gibsons is at the bottom end of the size range for that 2017 comparison. The largest municipality on the list has a population of 9,326.
The comparative analysis drafted by Douglas will be presented at the Oct. 2 committee of the whole meeting as a follow-up to a July report that recommended increasing the pay for the mayor by $3,150.72 per year to $34,636 and councillors’ pay by $1,461.60 per year to $16,063.
The increases would leave the mayor and council with roughly the same take-home pay as they get now.
Councillors had asked to see an analysis of how Gibsons compares to similar municipalities before they consider the gross pay increase further.
At the time, outgoing mayor Wayne Rowe said he wanted to deal with the pay question before the election “to ensure whoever the incoming council is would not be disadvantaged by the change in the taxation… It wasn’t looking at anything beyond maintaining the status quo.”
