Calgary city council will not freeze their pay at 2024 levels for this year, upholding recommendations from the council compensation review committee to keep the average weekly earnings calculations in place.

Councillors discussed the item at the end of the Jan. 14 Public Hearing meeting of council, and required them to reconsider their prior approval of the Council Compensation Committee’s recommendation to keep the current formula in place. The item failed on reconsideration with a 7-7 tie. It needed 10 votes to be reconsidered.

Currently, councillors are paid a base salary of $120,755 and the mayor gets $213,737. They’re in line for a 3.07 per cent increase as of Jan. 1, 2025.

“Maintaining the current Alberta average weekly earnings calculation methodology as the basis for determining Council’s annual pay adjustments using data from September-to-September period, since the Alberta average weekly reflects the economic conditions experienced by Albertans, it is the appropriate for compensation for members of council to be aligned with the same economic realities as their constituents,” the compensation committee report read.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek added the item to the public hearing meeting agenda, as a group of councillors was also working on a Notice of Motion to freeze pay beyond 2024.

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal put the motion forward, asking for a reconsideration of the December decision, and calling for the one-year freeze.

“Many residents in our city, they’re facing unprecedented financial struggles, and it is important for council to show that we understand the realities, and standing alongside them,” Dhaliwal said.

“Families are making some tough decisions, deciding between paying rent, covering the mortgage or footing insurance.”

Coun. Sonya Sharp seconded the motion, and was prepared to add her own recommendation for a pay freeze beyond this year with the caveat it would be reviewed annually by the City’s law department.

“Council receiving an automatic pay raise when so many Calgarians are struggling to make ends meet does not just look bad. It is bad. It’s wrong, and it needs to stop,” she said.

“Council should not be receiving an automatic pay raise this year or, let alone any year.”

A question of political grandstanding

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean, who tried to get a pay freeze motion on the floor of council back in 2021, supported the motion, but questioned the motivation of some members of council.

“Consistency I think is what is important in an elected official. You should always have an opinion and you vote consistently. That’s what people want to see. They don’t want to see people waver back and forth,” he said.  

“They want to know what’s real, what’s true, what you believe in, not what’s convenient to believe in.”

Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian agreed that councillors should stay consistent on these issues. She also said it was a small pay raise given the pressures of the job.

“It’s a very difficult job to do, and I think that when you one of the things that makes it more difficult is when we systemically devalue the work,” she said.

“It’s really hard to listen to people polishing their halos over this, when you know that you could the money’s not going to go back to citizens. It’s going to sit in city coffers.

“I just don’t understand why we are constantly in a race to the bottom.  I think we should stand up and say, like no. This is a reasonable adjustment that has reasonable parameters around it, and it’s just so exhausting to show up to this job and see people pander more to the narrative of things than the actual, factual reality and politics.  This job is getting more and more divorced from reality, which makes people who care about those facts and figures and those reality not want to do it anymore.”

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said a volunteer citizen committee spent their time reviewing this and freezing pay ignores their work.

“Do not reconsider this. Do not get involved with your pay. Do not play these petty politics,” he said.  

“I know that this admonition will fall on deaf ears amongst a lot of you and I don’t necessarily disagree with how you value yourselves, but don’t devalue the institution.”