Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows mayors both back the departure allowance and wage hike approved on on March 23 by and for members of the Metro Vancouver board.
It is composed of 40 representatives of the 21 members of Metro Vancouver and meets regularly to set legislation for the regional government.
“I think remuneration is important when you want to attract talented people. My decision was really based on my sense of what’s required to attract talented people, as opposed to anything to do with myself,” said Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read, who’s not running for re-election in October.
“I think it’s about keeping Metro Vancouver competitive and salaries in line. I think it’s really important to make sure that we are very responsible with the amount of money we pay out in remuneration, but need to make sure that we’re able to attract good people to the roles of mayor and councillor …” Read added.
The board approved a retiring allowance that would be paid out to directors who were not returning to the Metro Vancouver board, either because they’d lost an election or were simply stepping down.
Metro Vancouver board members are usually mayors of their respective cities and are appointed from individual councils. They receive a per-meeting stipend of $387 for meeting up to four hours and $775 for meetings over four hours. That’s on top of their compensation for sitting on their respective city councils.
The allowance would be determined by calculating 10.2 per cent of a Metro Vancouver director’s salary each year. That amount would be accumulated during a politician’s service, then paid out when they leave.
That amount is equivalent to what Metro Vancouver would have made had there been a pension plan in place for the regional politicians and works out to about $1,100 for each year served.
Pitt Meadows Mayor John Becker said the one-time retirement allowance isn’t a lot of money. The thought is, the longer someone serves, the longer they’re away from what would be their usual work, he said.
“If you want to limit local government participation to people who are retired on significant pensions, you’re going to lose a lot of diversity.”
The allowance is retroactive to more than a decade ago and applies to anyone who served on the Metro Vancouver board as of 2007.
According to a staff report, the retroactive allowance would cost the regional government $498,000, with an increase to the budget in future years of $62,500.
As well, the board of directors approved a 15-per-cent increase in the average salary of directors, for 2019 only, to compensate for the change in federal tax rules, which removes the non-taxable portion of director’s salaries.
That will cost Metro Vancouver another $130,000 a year.
Maple Ridge council is also looking at boosting the salaries of councillors in response to the same issue.
Maple Ridge councillors make about $40,000 a year, while the mayor earns $99,000 a year.
Surrey, Port Coquitlam and Vancouver have all implemented some sort of leaving allowance.