MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County council has approved a number of changes to reeve and councillor remuneration for the council scheduled to be elected in October.
The move came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting. The updates will come into effect following the Oct. 18 municipal election, although it will be up to the new council whether to accept the changes.
The motion passed directs administration to return Councillor Remuneration and Compensation procedures 1004-01 with amendments effective Jan. 1, 2022 that increase the reeve base rate by $1,307 based on the per capita review against 11 comparable municipalities and increase the councillor base rate by $4,445 based on the per capita review against 11 comparable municipalities.
During the June 23 council meeting, administration presented the results of a survey of reeve and councillor remuneration comparison with 11 other similar size Alberta municipalities.
Regarding reeve remuneration, the review found that the county’s rate has stayed fairly consistent with the gap identified in the 2017 review and is still lagging behind the 60th percentile in most modelling and would require minor increases to bring it to the 60th percentile.
Regarding councillor remuneration, the review found that the gap identified in the 2017 review has widened and ranges from slightly behind the 60th percentile to significantly behind the 60th percentile depending on modelling used. This rate would require significant percentage increases to return it to alignment to the 60th percentile.
Following the presentation of the review, councillors commented on the proposed changes to the remuneration and compensation procedure.
Coun. Duncan Milne said in part, “I think it is pretty fair way of doing it, basing it on a per capita cost where everyone knows where it is at. I like the idea of per capita.”
Reeve Bruce Beattie said in part, “The idea is it to put (the change in procedure) in place now so the future council don’t have the responsibility after being in office for two months of making the decision on their compensation. We would hope that the work that has been done and had gone into this recommendation would be sufficient to convince a future council that this was fair.”
Coun. Greg Harris said in part, “My problem with this is the timing. I don’t think we are in a rush given that we are talking about January 1 and prior to any kind of budget discussion or any information as to what is coming from the province I don’t think this is necessary right now. I won’t be able to support the motion at this time.”
Coun. Angela Aalbers, who proposed the motion, said in part, “I think it is part of our job to set the next council up. I think this is something we need to fix now.”
Coun. Peggy Johnson said in part, “I’m not going to support the motion. Given the current economics and uncertainty, based on principle I’m just not going to support this motion.”
All seven councillors were at the June 23 council meeting.
