Pay day in Stratford

Town councillors see compensation rate increased for first time since 2001

Town councillors will be getting a pay raise.

Stratford council voted 5-1 to increase the compensation rate to the mayor and councillors during Wednesday’s meeting, marking the first time it has increased since 2001.

The raise will be implemented over two years and will see Mayor David Dunphy receive $1.94 per resident, Deputy Mayor Randy Cooper receive $1.13 per resident and other councillors receive $0.98 per resident in 2017.

In 2018, which will include inflation, those numbers will increase to $2.62 for the mayor, $1.50 for deputy mayor and $1.31 for councillors.

The mayor was previously authorized to receive $1.25, while the deputy mayor received $0.75 and councillors received $0.65.

Cooper said the decision came from a compensation review conducted by resolve HR that looked at compensation packages in comparable municipalities across the Maritimes.

“There’s only so many (communities) of our size here; that’s why we wanted to go out and get a larger sample in the Maritimes,” said Cooper.

For comparison, Stratford had a population of about 9,706 in 2016. This means Dunphy received $13,333, Cooper received $8,480 and other councillors received $7,509.

Stellarton, N.S., was the closest comparable community in the review as it’s a smaller municipality located next to the larger population centre of New Glasgow.

The revenue for Stellarton is 16 per cent higher than Stratford, while its population is half. In 2016, compensation levels in Stellarton saw the mayor receive $19,319, deputy mayor receive $15,114 and councillors receive $13,676.

The review states that all comparable towns saw higher compensation than Stratford by a significant amount in 2012, regardless of population.