The Municipality of Jasper will be seeking public feedback on proposed changes to how council members are compensated.
The recommendations include eliminating per-diem pay in favour of increasing the base salary.
“This causes some consternation in the public whenever remuneration is discussed,” CAO Bill Given told council. “Any changes, if council recommends or supports any changes, would only be applied to the new council following the 2025 election.”
The last external review of council pay took place in 2017 when administration contracted a consultant to undertake the review, which considered 15 comparable municipalities.
In July, council had approved the establishment of a council remuneration review committee that would have included public members.
It later reconsidered the decision due to the wildfire and instead directed administration to conduct the review while still giving the public the opportunity to provide public input.
Given said remuneration should recognize the inherent “complexities, responsibilities and time commitments” of elected officials in the Municipality of Jasper.
“I’m making that point because the role of elected officials in Jasper has always been somewhat different from those of other similar-sized communities as a result of our tourism-based economy … and also the complexity of intergovernmental relations,” he said. “In the upcoming term, we’re also going to be adding the complexities related to wildfire recovery to that.”
The council compensation structure currently works on a base salary while enabling council members to claim a per-diem payment for attending meetings and events as part of their official duties.
Given said eliminating per-diems and increasing the base salary would simplify the payment structure, lessening the administrative burden and increasing transparency with the public and potential candidates.
“Under the current system, if somebody is considering running for council and they look up how much council members are paid under the current policy, they would see the base salary, which does not reflect what the actual final compensation is after the course of the year, recognizing that variable per-diem amount,” he added.
After increasing the base salary to the average of Banff, Jasper and Canmore, adopting a “no-diem approach” would result in an all-encompassing annual salary of $114,417 for the mayor and $36,056 for councillors.
The current base salaries are $81,816 for the mayor and $19,085 for councillors, but this does not include the extra per-diem pay.
Given acknowledged that these seemed like large changes but noted that they were in line with the averages of two comparable communities and remove the per-diem variability still present in other communities.
In addition, instead of annual adjustments to council pay based on changes to the consumer price index, pay would only be adjusted once per four-year term at the midpoint. This is particularly in light of the planned increase in the base salary.
Other minor changes include formalizing the mayor’s allowance for phone and phone service and recognizing the mayor’s role as full-time.
The total net increase in pay and benefits would be $91,702.
Administration will make the report and recommendations available for public feedback until Oct. 8. It will later return to council on Oct. 22 with a summary of public input.
Coun. Ralph Melnyk asked what would qualify as acceptable public feedback.
“I think it’s critical that everybody work on the same platform to provide feedback because they may say that they provided feedback but it was never considered,” Melnyk said.
Given replied that administration planned to have a formalized public engagement process using the Engage Jasper platform.
Coun. Rico Damota said he would rather keep the per-diems, noting that all-inclusive salaries may deter councillors’ commitments to different boards and making meetings.
“We do have people that are available a little bit more and have more cumbersome commitments to different committees and can make themselves available because of that free time,” Damota said. “And there are other people … that might have a little bit of a busier workload when it comes to their professional lives.”
