St. Albert city councillors could soon be eligible to earn up to $12,000 each year in daily allowances on days they attend conferences, council-appointed committees, formal meetings between council and stakeholders, and more, thanks to a motion put forward by Coun. Natalie Joly.
The money would come through per diems, which in the context of municipal government, can be thought of as money paid to officials for attending meetings that are not considered part of their normal council duties.
Joly's motion, read into the record on April 18, comes as council is in the middle of updating the remuneration policy for local elected officials, although the proposed changes were last in front of council for debate on April 11.
If successful, the motion would allow councillors to earn per diems as soon as July 1, however as of April 24, a date has not been finalized for a council debate.
Joly explained that she's seeking the $12,000 annual limit so that per diem earnings act as an income bridge until the recommended salary bump of nearly the same amount for councillors comes into affect, as would the recommended full-time designation. On April 11 council was divided as some officials supported the recommended salary increase implementation date of after the 2025 municipal election, while others sought to have the increase come into affect July 1, 2023.
“Having that per diem gives current councillors an opportunity to work full time if that's what they want to do and have their work recognized, which to me has value,” Joly said. “For next term I absolutely support going to full time, but for this term we signed up for part-time.”
“We benefit from our members of council participating in conferences, participating in meetings, and like every other municipality that I'm familiar with there is a benefit to encouraging people to go to these things.”
Mayor Cathy Heron said she supports the changes that Joly's motion is seeking, although she thinks the per diem amount itself may need to be lower than Joly has put forward.
Joly's motion stated that the per diem amount should match Alberta Municipalities, which Heron is the current president of.
The Gazette inquired with Alberta Municipalities about how much the organization pays members who attend meetings, although a response was not received prior to the print deadline. Although she wasn't confident the answer was correct, Heron said she thought the Alberta Municipalities per diem was $250 for a full day.
“I believe it's actually pretty good solution to bridge us between today and maybe making council full time and giving them a (salary increase) next term,” Heron said. “I think those per diems might be a little high, so worth a conversation and maybe do some comparables out in the region.”
One comparison is the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board (EMRB), a provincially mandated regional growth board, which provides board and all voting members with $200 per meeting, according the EMRB's governance policy.
Unlike her colleagues, Coun. Sheena Hughes said she has doubts that Joly's motion will act as an income bridge for council until the recommended salary increase is implemented, as she expects council will need to better determine in what circumstances councillors will be eligible to earn per diems.
“It leaves more questions like how long do you have to be at the meeting for it to be considered attendance? If you leave halfway through or come for like 10 minutes is it still considered a meeting that you attended?,” Hughes said. “My other issue is just that we're now qualifying as if council meetings or committee meetings are not worth additional reimbursement and all the other functions are.”
“For example, if you attend a lot of (per diem eligible meetings), but don't participate hardly in (budget deliberations), then we're valuing it as if that is a higher percentage of importance, or just higher importance for reimbursement than the rest of the duties or responsibilities for council.”
On April 18 Joly also put forward a motion that seeks to have administration develop a business case for providing councillors with office space in St. Albert Place, and an annual budget for hiring an executive assistant after council is designated full-time. The motion states that the business case isn't to be prepared and presented to council until October of 2024.
Hughes said she supported the concept of ensuring councillors have appropriate work spaces, and if providing offices in city hall isn't feasible, than councillors should be able to access resources to help set-up a home office.
“I've functioned for 10 years now without an official office space, I just want to make sure I have the tools to do the job,” she said.
