Yellowknife councillors consider pay changes at City Hall

Yellowknife’s mayor and councillors are considering increasing how much their successors get paid.

The city hired LSI Leaderhsip Source Inc to conduct a review of mayor and councillors’ salaries and benefits, which were last reviewed in 2018. The report’s salary recommendations were presented to council last week.

Based on analysis of a variety of factors including workload and the local labour market, the firm recommended increasing the mayor’s annual salary from $139,030 to between $172,592 to $184,920.

The report notes that whoever takes on the mayoral role may have to forgo other higher paying jobs in Yellowknife and miss out on related benefits like pension contributions, promotions and access to incremental vacation time.

The review further recommended increasing councillors’ salaries from $37,254 to $45,157, to better reflect the relationship between mayor and council salaries in comparable municipalities.

Those recommended changes should be implemented following October’s municipal election, LSI Leaderhsip Source said. That means, if approved, any salary increases would not apply to the current mayor and councillors unless they are re-elected.

“It helps avoid the perception that a sitting council is setting its own salaries for immediate personal benefit,” Lynda Schroeder with LSI Leadership Source told councillors.

The report did not recommend expanding benefits or allowances.

Councillors support lower increases

During a Wednesday meeting at City Hall, members of council discussed a proposed bylaw that would increase the mayor’s salary to $172,592 and councillors’ salaries to $45,200.

Tom McLennan suggested more conservative pay increases that would see the mayor’s annual salary rise to around $160,200 and councillors’ salaries to $40,682. In support of that proposal, he highlighted the potential impacts of diamond mine closures on Yellowknife’s job market as well as the review report’s recommendation that salaries be reviewed again at the end of next council’s term.

Garett Cochrane suggested increasing the mayor’s salary to the lower figure of $147,936, which he described as “a very generous salary in an economic situation that is not looking very good for the majority of our citizens” adding he wanted to make salary increases “as palatable as possible.”

Steve Payne disagreed with Cochrane, saying he has always felt the mayor’s salary has “been way too low.”

“Our mayor’s really work hard for their pay,” he said, noting the job often comes with work on weekends and evenings.

“If we’re talking about accessibility and trying to get more people involved, I think a higher wage will get a different group of people interested in this.”

Payne said he would support increasing the mayor’s salary to the amount stated in the draft bylaw or the lower figure suggested by McLennan. He also supported McLennan’s proposal regarding councillors’ salaries.

Councillors Stacie Arden Smith, Rob Foote, Rob Warburton and Ryan Fequet also supported McLennan’s suggestions for mayor and council salary increases.

“I think this is a reasonable balance between public funds but also compensating someone for that workload,” Warburton said.

Fequet said he would like to see the annual funding available for childcare expenses increased from $2,000 to $4,000. While no one has used that benefit during his time in office, Fequet said he wanted to make it accessible for other people to serve on council in future.

Councillors are expected to formally vote on changes to salary and benefits at a future meeting.

Deciding on future pay ‘a bit gross’

While any approved changes won’t go in effect until after October’s election, Payne said it felt “a bit gross” having to decide on salary increases when some sitting councillors could be running for re-election. Yet he and several other councillors said that, for them, the pay was not the primary factor in their decision to run for office.

“Many of us took the role just to give back to our community and not as a financial benefit,” Foote said.

“This is for the job first and not for the little bit of money that we do receive,” Arden Smith added.

Regarding the mayor’s salary, she said she wants to ensure the city gets the “appropriate people wanting to run” and she felt “free and clear” making that decision as she does not plan to run for re-election.

Mayor Ben Hendriksen, who was not at Wednesday’s meeting, has also said he does not plan to run for mayor in the upcoming election.