Calgary Ward 4

After the 2001 election, City Council established an independent task force to review Council remuneration. In March of 2003 the Task Force recommended a new process to establish compensation so that Council members would not find themselves in a conflict of interest in voting on their own salaries. They recommended that Council remuneration be automatically adjusted on January 1st of each year based on the same percentage increase or decrease in the Average Weekly Earnings of Albertans as reported by the Statistics Canada Survey of Employment Payroll and Hours for the immediate preceding year, based on that year’s September to September report information. This method was adopted by City Council and has been in place since then.

A second independent task force review of Council remuneration in 2006 recommended the continuation of this method for annually determining the pay for Council. In keeping with this method, the increase of 5.5% as of January 1, 2009 for Members of Council was based on the weekly earnings increase of Albertans from September 2007 to September 2008.

I support this method of determining Council remuneration. It has worked well. It tracks an independent measurement in the Alberta marketplace to set Council compensation automatically. Council members are removed from voting directly to set their own pay levels. I should note that in the event of wage deflation for Albertans, City Council will get a pay reduction. The lag would be a year, but the wage levels of Albertans – either up or down – is always eventually reflected in the income provided to Members of City Council.