City Council Gets Raise To Compensate For Federal Tax Changes

Windsor city councillors will be getting a bump pay for the upcoming council term, but it won't be reflected in their take home.

Federal tax changes will result in Mayor Drew Dilkens making $7,055 less per year while councillors will make the same.

A Council Compensation Review Committee comprised of five citizens was appointed to review the issue.

Dilkens says the committee did its due diligence.

"They had eight committee meetings. They undertook a public survey. They had two town hall meetings. They also did a sample of all municipalities across Ontario to say how do we compare? When they looked at the comparisons, they said the City of Windsor city councillors are actually paid less than their peer municipalities."

He says raises aren't commonplace for this council.

"If you go all the way back to 1991, city council received a small pay increase in 1991. There was no other increase for 14 years until 2005. City council, at that point, received a 1.9% increase. Now fast forward an additional 14 years and we're having this conversation. There was no process in place with respect to council compensation."

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens chairs the first ever regular meeting of council at the new city hall on June 4, 2018. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)

Dilkens says taxpayers will be paying more for their council members, but the money will be going to the federal government.

"At the end of the day city councillors aren't taking home any more, but it requires the city to pay more in order to offset the loss from the federal government. But I think the process that was used was actually a fair process. It benchmarks my position and city councillors positions against peer municipalities and that it'll be fair moving forward and that's what we're trying to do."

Under the new pay rates, Dilkens will take home $114,844 in 2019, down from $121,899.

Councillors will make $33,900 in 2019 — no change from 2018.