Council Compensation

Weekly Earnings 1

Weekly Earnings 2

As my wage is paid for by all Edmontonians, I believe it's important to review the process about how Council wages are set. Back in 2006, a decision was made by that City Council to find a way to stop voting on their own salaries. So a decision was made to have an independent committee provide recommendations for Edmonton City Council compensation. The process is that every two terms, an independent committee will complete a review and provide recommendations to Council. For those interested in reading the 2006 and 2012 reports, please visit this site http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/city_organization/council-compensation.aspx and scroll to the bottom of the page where you can access both PDFs.I believe that having our compensation determined independently is the correct approach. When the Council of 2012 was debating this, I agreed with the process and still think it is the best process because it eliminates the political discussion around salaries.

This is the only order of government that does not set our own wages and I do not believe we should ever be involved in that decision as there would be no way to remain unbiased. It is worth noting that the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation also supports the approach of having an independent committee setting our wages.

The question you are likely asking is “how did wages go up by 0.88% since the economy isn't doing well?” As soon as I received word about this I asked that very question. Thankfully the City Clerk’s office was prepared for that question and provided me with the month by month breakdown. For your information I have provided both the change from 2013 to 2014 and then from 2014 to 2015. This information is from Statistics Canada.

Average Weekly Earnings of Albertans

As you can see from this most recent year, things were still looking good across the Province until we saw the first decline in June. Since we use a 12 month average, the higher numbers at the start is why there is still a small increase overall. Obviously if this downward trend continues, it is likely that we will face a decrease next year. Regardless of what happens, it will not be determined by City Council which I think is the right way to go. For those of you who read what I wrote last year, this post looks quite similar. As long as our wages are determined independently, it is unlikely my yearly post will change as the process remains the same until the next Council gets a new set of recommendations from an independent committee in 2018. With that said, it is still important to review this every year so people understand the process.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know in the comments below.

Written by Andrew Knack