Kelowna mayor and council should get raises to make up for loss of tax-free status: Staff

KELOWNA – Salaries paid to Kelowna’s mayor and councillors next year will be losing their one-third tax-free status and staff are recommending they get a raise to make up for it.

Staff are also recommending an annual Consumer Price Index inflation adjustment begin in 2020.

Effective January 1, 2019, elected officials across Canada are scheduled to lose a "non-accountable expense allowance” intended to allow them to recover incidental expenses without submitting receipts.

In a report to council, director of financial services Genelle Davidson says the immediate result of the federal government’s move would be a loss in net pay for both the mayor and councillor positions.

She is recommending an increase of $11,380 for the mayor’s position and $3,050 for each of the eight council positions.

Current Mayor Colin Basran makes $95,695 and Kelowna councillors make a base rate of $33,493 before additional stipends for other governance and deputy work.

Davidson looked at 22 Canadian municipalities and found that two-thirds have approved similar increases in response to the accounting change.

If approved by mayor and council, the change will take effect next January, after October’s municipal election.

Basran announced today, May 24, that he will seek reelection as mayor in the 2018 municipal election.

The total cost to the 2019 provisional budget will be $44,660, Davidson writes, and will include another $5,000 for employer paid source deductions.

Kelowna council will consider the request at its next public council meeting 1:30 p.m. Monday, May 28, in Kelowna council chambers.

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