Yorkton Council moved ahead Monday with an amendment to its remuneration for members of Council policy.
In June of 2017, the Federal Budget received Royal Assent and it was announced that nationwide, municipal elected officials would lose the benefit of one-third of their remuneration as non-taxable effective Jan. 1, 2019, detailed a report circulated to the regular meeting of City Council Monday.
At the Oct. 29, meeting of Council a proposed amendment was set forth that would have the Mayor’s remuneration to 85 per cent of that of an MLA’s salary (up from 75 per cent).
The intended amendment was advertised to the public without official response.
The change passed with Councillors Darcy Zaharia and Quinn Haider opposed, and Councillors Mitch Hippsley and Randy Golden absent.
The change will cost the City of Yorkton an additional $27,000 per year to operations.
“The elected officials are not receiving an increase in net pay, rather the Federal Government is receiving an increase in income tax. This implication applies to all 5,162 Canadian municipalities including towns, villages, rural municipalities, resort villages, etc. There are 16 cities in Saskatchewan, and hypothetically, if those municipalities had the same Council profile as Yorkton, the Federal Government would realize an extra $432,000 in income taxes – just from Saskatchewan cities,” detailed the report Monday.
