Municipal politicians in B.C.'s Lower Mainland are set to walk away with thousands more in compensation when they finish their terms in November after the Metro Vancouver board voted to give itself a retirement allowance Friday.
Mayors and councillors appointed to the 40-member board are already paid to attend meetings. But now, they'll get a lump sum of 10.2 per cent of what they've earned over the years when they leave the board.
For current board members, the retirement allowance is retroactive to 2007.
"If you want good people you've got to be willing to pay," said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, who voted for the move.
Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, who's also the chair of the board, is not running for re-election and will get almost $50,000 when he retires in November. Corrigan said the money is justified since the chair and vice-chair positions can amount to as much work as a full-time job.
Kris Sims, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation, thinks the move is excessive and unnecessary.
"They just voted themselves a leaving bonus at your [taxpayers'] expense that they don't need to pay for at the ballot box," she said.
Corrigan acknowledged there's always opportunity for scorn when elected officials get a raise since it comes out of the taxpayer's pocket. As such, he thinks wages for politicians have been artificially kept down.
"[They're] not enough to attract people into those jobs who have the levels of competence that are necessary to have good government," he said
He said the pay raise could help fight the idea that politics is only a career for rich or retired people.
"If we want to get young people involved there's got to be at least the remuneration they're going to see if they go into the private sector," he said.
But Sims said oftentimes, those politicians on the board have other jobs—whether it's owning a business, being a teacher or collecting a pension from a previous job. She said she understands the idea of attracting and retaining talented people, but said politics is different than other jobs because it's about service.
"It is a slap in the face to taxpayers," she said. "We have to keep in mind that the Metro [Vancouver] Board is a bonus board they sit on over and above what they're paid to do as a mayor or city councillor."
Sims also thinks how the board should have been more transparent about Friday's vote. She noted there was no public record of who voted which way, and thought the board should have put out a news release prior to the meeting or asked the public for input.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Shannon Paterson
