City Council is passing up a pay raise this year, saving the city a total of $4,900.
At Monday night’s meeting, Mayor Bill Mauro said they need to save money where they can during the pandemic.
Councillor Rebecca Johnson said this should only be a one-time pay freeze and salaries should be increased as normal after COVID-19, noting it took “a very long time” to establish regular pay increases for Council.
Neebing Ward Councillor Cody Fraser agreed, saying it’s a good move for this year but should not become a regular method of cutting costs.
“I don’t want us to get us kind of pigeonholed in a situation where we’re never getting a raise, similar to–I’m looking across the table at Mayor Mauro–similar to the situation with the provincial government right now. They’re under-paid and nobody will ever put forward a motion to get a raise,” Fraser pointed out.
The raise would have increased Councillors’ salaries by one-half of the rate of inflation for 2019.
