GOLDEN HANDSHAKES
Metro Vancouver politicians draw fury for voting to give themselves retirement allowances and pay adjustments
Seven months before an election that could see many of the region’s mayors and councillors retire from politics or lose their seats, Metro Vancouver’s board of directors has voted to give its members a retirement allowance and a pay adjustment.
It was a move that quickly drew criticism from advocates for lower taxes.
“This is the sort of thing that makes people furious at politicians and politics,” said Kris Sims, B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The regional district conducted a review of the remuneration bylaw in response to changes in the 2017 federal budget that will eliminate the non-taxable status of a portion of elected official salaries — in Metro’s case, one-third — starting in 2019.
The board voted Friday to make a one-time adjustment, effective Jan. 1, 2019, that will see pay for its 40 directors increased by 15 per cent to offset the tax changes. In effect, the directors will not see a change in their net pay. The adjustment will result in a one-time budget increase of $131,333.
“We’re not trying to have more take-home pay, we’re just trying to keep the next elected group at the same pay as they are today,” board chairman Greg Moore said in an interview. “I think that’s appropriate.”
Some Metro municipalities, as well as Victoria, have also made adjustments to elected officials’ salaries to offset the tax impact.
While updating the bylaw, staff was asked to look at implementing a retirement allowance, somewhat like a pension, for Metro board directors.
The board voted in favour or implementing such an allowance, which directors will receive as a onetime payment when they cease to be an elected official in any Metro Vancouver member jurisdiction, whether they resign or are defeated in an election. The allowance will be retroactive
to Jan. 1, 2007, but apply only to current municipal politicians who have served on the board.
The retroactive payments work out to about $1,100 per year of service. Going forward, directors will earn about $1,500 per year of service. There is no cap on the amount they can earn.
For instance, when North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton and North Vancouver City Mayor Darrell Mussatto leave politics this fall, they will receive just over $12,000 each. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Moore, Port Coquitlam’s mayor, will receive about $11,000, White Rock Mayor Wayne Baldwin will receive about $7,700 and Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read will receive almost $4,500.
The move will cost Metro $498,000 in retroactive retirement earnings back to Jan. 1, 2007, and going forward it is expected to cost $62,500 per year, funded through the general
government budget.
The allowance does not apply to alternate directors.
Coquitlam Coun. Brent Asmundson, who was sitting as an alternate director, said he anticipated the move would be controversial.
“Especially with the number of people who are leaving the board, I don’t think it’ll be well received in the public that we have so many people who are longtime members getting a retro pension on their way out the door,” he said. “I think it would be better to be dealt with or deferred to the new board coming in.”
Director and Burnaby Coun. Colleen Jordan said she supported the pay increase, but not the retirement allowance.
“I basically feel that the recommendation is mixing apples and oranges,” she said, referring to the fact it is combining a stipend and meeting fee system with a salary system.
She also pointed out there is no minimum term of service to receive the allowance, meaning someone who is a director for one year can receive a small allowance.
“It feels to me like it hasn’t been looked at in the sense of any principles behind what’s being put forward,” she said. “It’s just some people have been here a long time and we should give them something for leaving and I don’t think that’s the way you should make policy and decide on something like this that’s going to be in place going into the future.”
When asked why the pension was made retroactive to 2007, Moore said the committee looked at a number of variables before deciding.
“There’s no other methodology to it,” he said. “Ten years seemed like a good length of time to look at.”
Area A director Maria Harris said there were too many unanswered questions for her to vote in favour of the move.
“I find it problematic ... that we vote ourselves an increase, but of course in a sense we are judged immediately and quickly through the public, particularly at a time like this, so in a sense we will be held to account by the public,” she said. “I find there’s way too much missing here for me to vote myself the kinds of increases that are being proposed here.”
Board vice-chairman Raymond Louie, a Vancouver councillor, defended the retirement allowance, saying it was extensively discussed and unanimously approved in camera at the committee level. He said it is important to appropriately compensate directors for devoting time and energy away from their communities to make important decisions at the regional table.
On Tuesday, Moore agreed that even though councils appoint members to the Metro board, they want to encourage the right people to step up and a retirement allowance may help. He said the board’s vote in favour of the allowance was a good decision.
“We do want to attract people, to make it attractive to come to Metro and spend the time and effort to have a second job as an elected official,” he said.