Ward 11 Alderman Brian Pincott | City of Calgary Office of the Aldermen

There has been a lot of attention paid to the Council wage increase, and concern has been raised with me from some of my constituents about Council receiving a wage increase in these economic times. As this issue will be brought back to Council again this coming Monday, a little clarification is in order.

Council does not vote itself raises or any other aspect of its wage. This was taken out of Council’s hands when they decided to have Council compensation reviewed and established by an external committee, made up of citizens and not by elected officials. This was done to ensure the process was open and transparent.

In 2003, the 1st Council Compensation Review Committee recommended that annual salary adjustments be tied to the Average Weekly Earnings of Albertans as reported by Statistics Canada and; that a comprehensive salary review should be conducted by a Task Force every three years. In 2006, the 2nd Council Compensation Review Committee recommended that the salaries of Aldermen continue to be adjusted annually on the basis of the increase or decrease in the Average Weekly Earning of Albertans.

There is a bit of a lag between when the data for the Average Weekly Earnings of Albertans is taken and when changes to the Aldermanic salaries come into effect. Thus the salary adjustment that occurred on Jan 1, 2009 is based on the change in Average Weekly Earnings of Albertans from Sept 2007-September 2008.

Declining economic conditions, that largely began the last quarter of 2008, could cause a decrease to the statistical Average Weekly Earnings of Albertans. If there is a decrease, this will be reflected in a decrease to Council salaries January 1, 2010.

I believe this is a fair and transparent process. It is one in which, we as politicians, are not involved. We do not set our own salaries, and nor should we. The proposal to change our salary is to have us set our own salaries.

If the citizen determined system is discarded by Council now, then we revert to the old, and unacceptable, process of having Council members set their own salaries each year. The process was taken out of the elected officials hands in order to achieve fairness and openness, to throw that out now would be a mistake. Again, we should not be setting our own salaries, and that applies whether we are getting an increase, a freeze, or, as is likely next year, a decrease.