Our Councillors Show Their Inner Avarice
Normally, The Bulldog doesn’t get all worked up about councillor pay raises.
That’s because these increases really don’t amount to much in the big scheme of things. Certainly not compared to the $6.4 billion in the late, slow and botched LRT project. Or compared to any of the usual suspects when it comes to council mistakes. We can’t bear to list them again but you know what they are. This is not a council that has bathed itself in glory.
But that won’t stop the bellowing talk-radio jockeys from decrying three per cent versus 3.5 per cent when it comes to councillor salaries, It will be an outrage even when it is not.
But months spent deciding on double-digit pay raises for councillors. It’s beyond belief.
Hello up there in the ivory tower. Outside of the Laurier Avenue bylaw factory, people aren’t getting double-digit raises. Neither are other councils whose salaries are comparable to those of Ottawa’s.
So what does this all mean? For all the time spent on discussing or dealing with Ottawa’s mammoth problems (not much), the real MO of Ottawa’s elected officials becomes apparent.
We see it when better jobs come along at other political organizations and councillors bail to go to the Ontario legislature, the federal government or the National Capital Commission. Their commitment to the city is profound until a better job comes along.
What you can take from all this is that our elected public servants are interested in one issue beyond all others. Double-digit pay raise you say? In this economic and political climate?
From this you can say that what councillors are not especially interested in you but someone else.
Themselves. So much for public service. It appears that public service is just for suckers.
Money is where it’s at.
Ken Gray
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
City Councilors make $111 K a year with a 2.5% increase per year. I know of 1 Councilors who took a significant cut in pay to become a Councillor.
They make significantly less than the upper echelon of City Hall managers
Most work long days and evenings.
I would not begrudge them a jump up.
If society wants to attract the best and brightest to the Public Sector we need to define merit in terms of skill, effort, responsibility , education, lived experience in some areas, and accomplishments. (Not political Connections as Doug Ford has legislated for and practiced.) And we need to vote for them and compensate appropriately.
From the news clip I saw, the Mayor was not in favor of this discussion. It was reported that the councillors’ request for a raise was based on a three-year period without any increases. What surprised me is that councillors can vote on their own raises. What a nice perk! They work long hours and handle tasks like moving traffic cones. Perhaps we should set up a GoFundMe for their raises.
So councillors have been meeting behind closed doors to discuss their need and/or want for a salary increase … have any actually looked at the mess this city is in because of THEIR decisions, whether direct or delegated to staff.
There is absolutely zero accountability and for this level of mismanagement, they deserve a raise?
They should be fired for dereliction of duty. Maybe voters will start paying attention come next election.