Forget 15% Councillor Pay Hike: GRAY

08/13/2025

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The idea of about half of Ottawa’s councillors exchanging emails about giving themselves a 15-per-cent pay raise is disconcerting.

Who do they work for? Themselves or you? Maybe a bit of both?

That gets their salary up to $137,000 a year. Who gets a 15-per-cent pay increase? Who gets $137,000 a year? Talk about an ivory tower. This is very disappointing. Somewhere in here we lose the concept of public service.

Most real people don’t get this kind of cushy treatment.

Sure many councillors work very hard. Some of it is producing good legislation. Some of it is electioneering. But they aren’t working outdoors in January or outside in our new sweltering summers. There’s no heavy-lifting. And the people doing the heavy-lifting are not making $137,000.

Many Ottawans would be eager to be employed on council. You discuss public policy, debate issues (at least prior to the last four councils), represent the public (sometimes) and you have a high public profile. In their little world, councillors are big important people.

Fifteen-per-cent is a steep increase by any standards. Have councillors looked at their performance lately? The botched light-rail project with a $7 billion price tag is enough to get most councillors fired. Some councillors, such as mayoral-candidate Jeff Leiper, have been on council since the first 2019 derailment and still haven’t been able to conjure a repair. Councillor, isn’t five years enough time to get your train fixed?

But there’s more. The new central library is at least $300 million over budget and coming in late. The lack of research on Lansdowne by council is appalling. Roads are so potholed that cars on Richmond Road were bottoming out Tuesday on what might have been an Ottawa-record-sized crevice that covered the entire road beside the two-year-late-and-counting light-rail construction fiasco.

Have any councillors taken an unplanned walk down the rail tunnel beside the Ottawa River to see if it leaks worse than its downtown counterpart? Or another stroll down the Richmond Road rebuild and light-rail mess to see why so little changes?

LRT finishing date 2027? Not likely. Why? One reason is councillors haven’t been doing their due diligence on the largest project in Ottawa municipal history. Had they, it would not be such a mess.

So a 15-per-cent pay increase for councillors? Not a chance. A two-per-cent boost? Unlikely.

But given this council’s brutal performance, a pay cut would be in order. Would it be appropriate? Damn straight. Will it happen? Forget about it.

Ken Gray

Ken Gray is an award-winning journalist who worked at five major Canadian newspapers. He is an educator, broadcaster and at present is the editor and founder of the 16-year-old pioneering internet publication, The Bulldog.