Stewart proposes major increases in councillors’ discretionary budgets

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart is proposing to increase city councillors’ discretionary budgets five-fold, from $6,000 a year to $30,000.

In announcing the proposal on Monday, Stewart, the city’s first independent mayor in three decades, emphasized that increasing council budgets was his idea, not something being pushed by council members.

The goal, he said, would be to provide more administrative support for councillors and improve their ability to interact with the public.

“Councillors in Vancouver are very, very under-supported when compared to other councillors across the country, so this is a good first step,” Stewart said Monday, addressing reporters at City Hall.

According to a recent report from Stewart’s office, Vancouver’s total budget for the mayor’s office and council represents a cost of $4.98 per capita, ranking among the lowest compared to other Canadian cities.

Vancouver’s mayor and council budget is higher than that of nearby Surrey, where it’s $3.32 per capita, but almost half the size of their Calgary counterparts’ per capita cost of $9.69, the report said.

Stewart pointed out that most other Canadian cities elect councillors through a ward system, meaning each councillor represents a specific geographic area of the city.

Vancouver’s at-large system, on the other hand, means every one of the 10 councillors are elected to represent the whole city, and “they have to communicate with 650,000 residents.”