Meredith Kerr
Journal Staff
County of St. Paul council gave themselves a 10 per cent pay increase, with a motion being passed after a closed session at the Dec. 11 meeting.
According to an email from Chief Administrative Officer Sheila Kitz, the remuneration changes were also discussed at the public budget meeting on Nov. 26.
The closed session, also called in-camera, means the public and the media are not permitted to be in the room observing discussions. It also means no minutes or other documents from the session are publicly available. Council chambers were closed to the media and public for more than an hour at the Dec. 11 meeting.
When asked in a follow up interview if the discussion about the pay increase had taken place in camera, County Reeve Steve Upham said "Stuff that's in camera has to stay in camera. But in general the council had a few options to consider to replace the money that was taken away by the federal government. It's a tough question that's had to be dealt with by every council in Canada"
"I can't really say too much more because it's in camera," said Upham.
Kate Toogood, a spokesperson for Alberta Municipal Affairs refused to comment on the specific situation, but said in an e-mail "the Municipal Government Act requires councils to conduct all meetings in public unless they are dealing with a matter that falls under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act – division 2 of Part 1. Before going into a closed session, a council must approve that part of the meeting be closed, and approve the basis on which the meeting is being closed. Any concerns or complaints about municipal use of closed sessions can be referred to Alberta’s Privacy Commissioner."
According to the information on the Alberta Municipal Affairs website, a council may close the meeting to the public when public disclosure could be harmful to “third party business interests, third party personal privacy, individual or public safety, law enforcement, intergovernmental relations, and economic or other interests.”
The website states topics such as “budget deliberations, tax, any contentious issues, sensitive local issues, bylaw amendments, tax recovery, and discussions regarding budget requirements for hiring additional municipal staff and for the setting of salary ranges” are not to be discussed behind closed doors.
Asked about the decision to have the discussion behind closed doors, Upham said "Maybe it should. I mean the rest of our compensation is discussed in open session. I think there's been a variety of different approaches. At the end of the day we decided to come out in the middle of the group. I guess it's open to interpretation. I don't want to pitch our council against other councils that have done less or more. It's about finding our comfort zone and being there. There's a variety of different opinions and feelings come out of it. We were talking about other councils and is it fair to position them, the ones who took 15 or the ones who took three or five? I don't know that that's fair to do that and so we had the discussion in private," said Upham.
Motions cannot be passed during a closed session, the motion that was approved in the open council meeting simply stated, “to accept the council remuneration changes.”
Later in the meeting, a policy detailing the rules surrounding council remuneration and expense claims, but not the rates of pay, was also passed.
In a follow up interview after the meeting, Kitz explained the reasoning behind the pay raise.
“Elected officials in Canada used to enjoy a one third tax exemption on their earnings, and that exemption has been taken away,” said Kitz, who said the exemption expires as of Jan. 1, 2019, and that municipal councils “across Alberta for sure” are now determining what to do about councillor salaries, “since the net pay the councilor receives will be significantly reduced because the one third tax exemption is lost.”
Lac La Biche County recently gave themselves a 14 per cent pay raise, for the same reason, as reported in a Dec. 11 edition of the Lac La Biche Post.
“So council has provided a 10 per cent increase to the base pay and the per diem pay to offset that one third exemption,” explained Kitz.
Councilors receive a monthly salary, as well as a per diem for attending meetings, and a higher per diem for meetings outside the region.
According to Kitz, in 2018 a councillor received monthly pay of $2,098, the deputy reeve $2,498, and the reeve $2,898. In 2019, a councillor will receive $2,308, the deputy reeve $2,748, and the reeve $3,188.
In 2018 the per diem for meetings in the County of St. Paul was $190, for meetings outside the county $240. In 2019, the per diem for meetings in the County of St. Paul will be $209, for meetings outside the county $264.
According to Upham, a 15 per cent raise is what would be required to completely match the loss from the expiring tax exemption.
"We understand there's going to be some confusion and concern on the part of ratepayers but the government put us in this position and it's a tough one to deal with. You can close your eyes and say we're not going going to correct the issue, but at some point you're going to have to. It'll show up whether that's in interest to be a part of council or continuing to fall back, falling behind on compensation. so we decided to split the difference and take a number in the middle," said Upham.
A motion to approve the salary grid changes as discussed at a previous budget meeting was also carried.
According to Kitz the county’s salary grid is not public.
“What I can tell you is that one grid got increased to reflect the work we’ve done on job descriptions this past year. And so based on the level of responsibility in that job, they felt that this level was comparable to another level, and so they made them the same on the grid,” said Kitz.
Asked for more specifics about the increase, Kitz said it applied to a group of clerical employees that was increased to reflect the same level of responsibility in public works.
Other motions passed following the closed session on Dec. 11 include, a motion to deny the request for adjustment of assessment and taxes; and several motions related to the dissolution of the St. Paul Ambulance society were passed.
A motion to accept the assets/liabilities and any subsequent fees associated with the dissolution of the St. Paul Ambulance Society, including acquiring the building for $1, was approved. A motion that the net funds from the ambulance dissolution be set up in a community reserve fund was also approved.
A motion to accept and approve the assignment of the commercial lease with Prairie Medical Systems for the ambulance building was carried, and a motion for administration to negotiate a lease to own for the ambulance building with Alberta Health Services was carried.
In a follow up interview after the meeting, Kitz said the discussion regarding the St. Paul Ambulance Society was held during the closed session because of the legalities surrounding the sale and lease of the building.
“So Alberta Health Services has taken over the service, but as part of the transition the ambulance society is still leasing the building to Prairie EMS who provides the service. And so the ambulance society is making lease revenue every month from the building that they own, but as a not-for-profit they can’t continue to do that,” said Kitz.
A motion to provide assistance to MCSNet with a letter to the residents of Mallaig was also approved after the closed session.
Kitz said the letter is about providing fibre optic services to homes in Mallaig. The discussion was held in- camera because MCSNet is a private company and had not yet made the news public. Kitz said she expected the letters to be in the mail before the Journal’s press deadline.
In a follow-up call to MCSNet's Jerico VanBrabant, he said the company has been working with the County of St. Paul on plans to make fibre optic available to Mallaig.
“The plan is to deploy in the spring or summer,” said VanBrabant.
