City of Powell River Council has given third reading to its council remuneration bylaw.
At the January 23 city council meeting, there was a recommendation on the agenda to give third reading to the remuneration bylaw, but mayor Ron Woznow made a motion that the draft bylaw be deferred to a future council meeting after the 2025 financial plan has been finalized by city council.
Woznow said council does not know whether taxes in 2025 are going to increase 15 per cent, 10 per cent, or whatever.
“It’s reasonable that before we deal with changes to remuneration and benefits for council, that we wait and see what that final number is, and then we can address it,” said Woznow.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said the proposed bylaw had no changes in stipend for this year or next year until after the municipal election.
“These changes are proposed for the future,” said Elliott. “There’s no real benefit for this budget for doing that. Piling up work for later doesn’t help us get caught up for things that ought to have been considered quite some time ago.”
Woznow said in response to Elliott’s comments, there is a five-year financial plan that will be coming forward. He said if the five-year plan shows significant tax increases, it would be appropriate at that time to revisit what is going to happen in the future because the five-year plan looks forward into the future.
Councillor Jim Palm said he was in favour of Woznow’s motion. Palm said there may not be a raise in remuneration for council immediately, but the long-term financial situation is unknown.
“There’s so many unanswered questions in terms of the mill site, in terms of reassessments, and all of the rest of it,” said Palm. “We are going to have a better, clearer picture when we settle this year’s budget on a go-forward basis. There’s no need to pass this tonight.”
Councillor Trina Isakson said the city is facing financial uncertainty this year and it will remain true into the future for a few years.
“The question is when to affirm this proposed bylaw,” said Isakson. “Tonight, we’ll be reading it a third time, not adopting it. It’s important for those considering running for council to understand what they might be going into.
“There’s never a good time to talk about remuneration and benefits. It’s not popular. I would rather be done with it. Delaying it won’t address the underlying certainty that is going to last for a few years. I’m willing to move forward on this vote tonight.”
Woznow’s motion to defer was defeated, with Woznow and Palm voting in favour, and the rest of council opposed.
The original recommendation to pass third reading then came before the assembly. Third reading passed unanimously.
During question period at the end of the council meeting, after a question from the Peak about why council was proceeding with the proposed bylaw when there has been public opposition to the initiative, Woznow said that until council knows what its five-year financial plan looks like, the bylaw should not be moved forward.
Councillor George Doubt said the existing council policy is that there be an annual increase.
“When we talked about that at the beginning of 2024, council decided to postpone discussion on the wage increase for 2024 to later in the year,” said Doubt. “The main intention of this, that affects this year, is to not have an increase for 2024 and not have an increase in 2025 of councillors’ wages. That saves the community money.
“The other provisions for remuneration in different areas take effect after the next election in 2026. The 2025 budget is not affected other than the fact there is no increase in wages for councillors. The 2026 budget is only affected from November until the end of the year. There’s plenty of time, if people think that they can’t afford those provisions, to change it.”
Doubt said he understands what the Townsite and Westview ratepayers groups have said about remuneration and benefits but he believes the bylaw is reasonable and doesn’t have any cost effect until 2026.
“There’s plenty of time to reconsider if people think it is necessary,” said Doubt.
Elliott said the reason she supports the proposed bylaw is because the bylaw is intended to be comprehensive.
“I don’t think we can leave our term without a bylaw in place,” said Elliott. “That would not be the usual practice for governments. When folks come in after an election, there ought to be a bylaw in place that deals with remuneration, so they have clarity around that when they first come in.”
Elliott added that council decided to hold wages to zero per cent increase for the rest of the term. She said it could be an election issue and people could campaign on it and the next incoming council can do what they like with the bylaw.
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