Vernon’s new council will receive pay increase

VERNON – Vernon city council have approved a pay raise that will come into place for this fall's new council.

Council voted unanimously on the increase in pay for council and mayor today, Aug. 13, that will come into effect Nov. 1.

The Council Remuneration Committee recommended the pay increase which will take the mayor's base annual salary to $91,338. The salary is calculated on a rate of $1.90 per person in the city, based on Statistics Canada's numbers. The rate will increase to $2.20 per resident in November 2019, $2.31 in 2020 and $2.44 in 2021.

Councillors will also see a pay raise equal to that of 37 per cent of the mayor's salary taking them to a base annual salary of $33,795.

Vernon Mayor Akbal Mund defended the decision and pointed out that a committee made the pay recommendation and not the mayor and councillors themselves.

"I'm not making the decision, but I'll vote on it," Mund said.

On top of the pay hike, mayor and council will receive a one-off 11 per cent pay raise as of Jan. 1, 2019, to offset the change in federal government policy that scraps a 30 per cent tax-free allowance for the mayor and councillors.

In 2017 Mayor Akbal Mund earned $72,288 plus $4,150 in expenses, while the lowest paid councillor was Dalvir Nahal at $22,798. Coun. Juliette Cunningham earned the most at $27,135.

The remuneration committee recommended regular committee meeting pay rates remain unchanged. It also recommended that members of the committee receive $200 gift cards for their work.

— This story was corrected Aug. 14 at 11:22 a.m. to change incorrect figures in paragraph three. Also in an early version of this story, it incorrectly stated council had approved a pay rise for themselves, when in fact the pay increase will not come into effect until Nov. 1 when a new council will be in power.

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