The four councillors who voted against the pay hike were Mohini Singh, Ron Cannon, Rick Webber and Gordon Lovegrove.
It was a close vote, but late this afternoon, Kelowna City Council finalized a hefty pay hike for itself. The increase will bring the salaries more in line with like-sized cities. And while Kelowna moves forward with the controversial increase, one other BC municipal council contemplating a similar pay hike has put the brakes on its proposed hike, at least for now. Klaudia Van Emmerik reports.
“The demands on what we’re dealing with now is very different than 30 years ago. We are dealing with extremely complex social files. We’re dealing with extremely complex development files, and to do this job properly, you can’t be working another full-time job to supplement it. I tried to do it. I had to sell my business to do this full-time.”
“I’m just not comfortable in taking such a big increase, such a big raise,” Singh said. “It doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t like the opt-out after clause as well. I don’t want to see divisions on our council over this issue.”Canadian soldier feared dead in ‘tragic avalanche’ in SwitzerlandWhile Kelowna pushes ahead with the raise, in B.C.’s capital, where a similar pay hike was proposed, Victoria city council has pushed the pause button following public backlash.
For that reason, the Victoria councillor believes pay raises for municipal politicians should be in the hands of the province.
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