Kenora city council will decide next week whether to give itself a raise.
A report by the Director of Human Resouces Roberta Marsh says the mayor’s salary would go up $50,695, $30,401 for the deputy mayor and $22,865 for a city councillor.
Mayor Andrew Poirier says council members work very hard for the money they earn, so he doesn’t have an issue with the pay raise, but it’s bad timing.
“Right now, this would be very hard to defend,” Poirier told council this week during a very long Committee of the Whole meeting.
“To pass this right now, when we’re staring down a 14 percent increase in taxes, and this would add to it.”
Poirier is suggesting this be part of the broader discussion surrounding the operating budget.
“I’m just wondering if we can throw this into the bucket with everything else right now…have it be a part of the budget process. There are some ways, we can, in our own budgets, where we can draw on to pay for some of this.”
It’s estimated the council remuneration increase would add 0.1 percent to the budget or about $29,000.
Councillor Lisa Moncrief says the timing of the increase is very bad, when the city is already looking at a substantial tax hike.
