Councillors approved a 32 per cent salary increase Tuesday with only Councillors Mike Killick and Ken MacKay opposed. The $30,000 raise will go into effect following the October 2025 municipal election, along with 16 weeks of paternity leave and annual cost of living increase capped at 2.5 per cent.
At that time, councillors will become full-time and earn a salary of $86,000 up from today’s $58,587. The mayor's $149,675 salary will remain unchanged.
Killick, speaking against the motion, said the $86,000 salary figure was “pulled out of a hat,” and he would vote against because of the size of the increase. Killick put forward an amending motion to bring the figure down to the initially recommended $70,000 but, it was defeated.
“Looking at what our residents are going through, I don't think any of them are getting this kind of raise, or even a promise of that kind of a raise in the future,” Killick said. “I have no ability to know whether $86,000 is the right number or not.”
The decision comes after a split vote in April, when council discussed changes to councillors' pay and time commitment recommended by the citizen-based remuneration review committee.
At the time, council was split on when a seat on council should be designated a full-time position, and when a councillor's base salary of $58,587 should be increased to $70,000.
All members of council, including Mayor Cathy Heron, supported both recommendations in April, but half of council preferred to see the recommendations adopted after the next municipal election, while others wanted to see the change take effect this summer. At the time, Coun. Natalie Joly opposed both implementation dates, and at the time told the Gazette that $70,000 is “just too low … for a full-time job on council (and it’s) not reflective of what’s required in the role.”
Although the remuneration review committee recommended an increase of nearly $12,000, Joly bumped that another $16,000 with a motion June 6 that also made the position full-time after the 2025 municipal election.
Joly did not respond to the Gazette's interview request but, said during the June 6 council meeting she thought the current salary, as well as a $70,000 salary, excluded many people from being able to run for council.
“I want council to be accessible to a wide range of people and this number will help with that,” Joly said, adding she nearly resigned from council last spring because the pay wasn't enough for her to support her children.
“I came very, very close to having to resign, not because I wanted to, but because I needed to feed my kids and pay my power bill,” she said. “If we want to send a message that we welcome diverse people on council, we need to make sure the salary is a number that is inclusive.”
Speaking in favour of the raise, Coun. Wes Brodhead said council's current salary means those who serve on council either willingly sacrificed an opportunity to earn more money in other lines of work or are able to serve on council mainly through receiving pensions from prior careers.
“If you actually want to get people who have a wide diversity of ages, who are still working and are willing to take that cut in both the security and often in their overall pay to do this position — you have to entice them with appropriate salaries so they can actually afford to feed their families,” added Coun. Sheena Hughes.
The $86,000 figure was suggested by former city councillor Ray Watkins in a presentation at the beginning of the June 6 council meeting. According to provincial government data, the median income for a single-parent household in St. Albert in 2020 was $86,000.
The new salary means St. Albert will be nearly in line with Strathcona County, which as of last summer pays councillors $88,632.99 a year. However, come 2025 St. Albert will be paying its elected officials more than other municipalities in the region, such as the Town of Morinville, which as of 2021 pays councillors $35,285.88 per year, although Morinville's councillors are able to collect per diems; and Sturgeon County, which as of 2020 paid councillors a salary of $74,339, with the ability to collect per diems as well.
During the debate, MacKay said although he would have supported the initial $70,000, he felt he couldn't support the $86,000 figure without seeing supporting information or a regional comparison prior to voting.
“That's a substantial jump,” MacKay said, but added an increased salary would increase accessibility of running for a council seat.
Council also debated Hughes' motion to increase council's salary to $70,000 effective this summer, but the motion was defeated with just Hughes, Brodhead and Coun. Shelley Biermanski in favour.
In an interview, Hughes said she wanted to see council's salary increase to $70,000 this term because recommendations from the remuneration review committee were based on commitments made by the current council.
“This committee says this position is worth $70,000, but then says the current council doing that position is not worth $70,000,” she said. “There should be no graduation between today's job and (the future councillor) job, which will not be substantially changing.”
Mayor Heron, speaking against Hughes' motion during the meeting, said she couldn't support the motion because council knew what the salary would be for the term when they ran for election in 2021.
“That's a jump in salary that I can't believe you would even consider trying to defend publicly,” Heron said during debate. “This is against everything I believe in in public service.”
St. Albert council last received a salary hike in 2018.
Joly’s motion to allow councillors to earn up to $12,000 a year in per diems until the end of the current council term also passed.
