Sunshine List may not show mayors’ full pay
Regional council salaries and tax-free extra income isn’t always in the disclosure
When it comes to the salaries of GTA mayors on the Sunshine List, what you see may not be what they actually get.
If you look, for example, at how much Tony Van Bynen, the mayor of Newmarket, made in 2015, it was $120,494, covering his regional council and mayoral salaries. But in fact, his remuneration was $32,168.54 more. Why the discrepancy?
Newmarket is one of a handful of municipalities in the GTA where councillors continue to implement a provision in the Municipal Act that allows one-third of their income to be tax free to cover expenses. And in Newmarket’s case, the municipality chooses not to disclose that portion of Van Bynen’s town salary for the Sunshine List.
On the other hand, Ajax Mayor Steve Parish, who hit the Sunshine List with $109,619.03 in 2015, includes the one-third tax-free portion of his salary in his disclosure. But his listed salary doesn’t include the $53,000and-change salary he gets from the Region of Durham.
“The Sunshine List does not, quite often, compare apples to apples,” said Parish.
“To get a salary for mayors in the GTA . . . you would have to get their salary from (both) their municipality and the region,” he said, adding that there is also the discrepancy of those who disclose the one-third tax-free portion and those who don’t.
Every year, as part of the annual provincial public sector salary disclosure (PSSD), municipalities disclose how many of their employees earn more than $100,000. But there’s inconsistency around what exactly GTA mayors — who may have a variety of income sources — are required to report. Thus, in many cases, the numbers on the Sunshine List are often just a portion of what a mayor makes during the year.
“Our PSSD disclosure guideline is in accordance with government policies and applicable legislation,” said Alan Cairns, media spokesman for the Treasury Board Secretariat, which helps manage the fiscal plan of the government, including its spending and labour agreements.
“The amount reported as ‘salary paid’ is income from employment as defined by the Income Tax Act — as reported by the employer on a T4 slip,” he said. The confusion for GTA mayors stems in part from the fact they are paid both by the municipality and by the region they work in. Also, some municipalities such as Georgina, Newmarket and Clarington still apply the one-third tax-free provision to their municipal income — with some mayors declaring the full amount and others opting not to. Many mayors also get paid to sit on boards, but those numbers are rarely ever accounted for in their overall salary.
Many critics of the Sunshine List say this inconsistency is a “disservice” to citizens who are led to believe that the number on the list is the complete story.
“People should be able to look at the list and find an accurate figure,” said Darryl Wolk, a resident of Newmarket who ran for office in 2014, who said he had to file a Freedom Of Interest request to learn Van Bynen’s salary last year. The municipality released the details of the mayor’s income in the statement of remuneration and expenses report last week.
“It’s nowhere near accurate so it’s practically useless to the public. Or it’s worse than useless. It actually does a disservice because it’s not complete,” said Wolk.
Matt Gaskell, commissioner of corporate services for Durham Region, said it could come down to how mayors are paid.
“We have two different ways of paying regional councillors,” said Gaskell.
“Some are paid directly, and so that number doesn’t show up on the Sunshine List. For three of our municipalities, we reimburse them for this portion,” he said, adding that the regional portion is simply lumped in with the municipality pay. Most of the York mayors’ Sunshine List salaries include regional pay, but in Peel, some mayors leave it out.