One of the last motions passed by the outgoing Gibsons council ahead of the Oct. 20 municipal election was to give a pay increase to the mayor and councillors who take office in November.
The new pay rate will be $40,000 per year for the mayor and $20,000 per year for councillors, a significant increase from the previous $31,485 per year for the mayor and $14,601 for councillors.
Mayor Wayne Rowe pointed out to the people in the public gallery that some of that increase is to compensate for the fact that after Jan. 1, 2019 elected officials across Canada will no longer get one-third of their pay tax free.
Rowe also said, given that only one member of council is up for reelection, it was an appropriate time to consider the pay issue.
“I’ve been on council for 10 years and there hasn’t been a raise in all the time that I’ve been on council [aside from yearly cost of living increases],” he said. “We felt that as the majority of this council will not benefit in any way from an increase, that if a decision was to made on this it was appropriate that it be made by this council.”
