Councillors in St. Stephen has asked staff to adjust the bylaw regarding council pay to allow for an annual cost of living adjustment.
In December 2022, the mayor saw an increase from about $16,700 annually to $37,000, while the deputy mayor saw an increase from $9,800 to $22,000 annually.
Councillors also saw a raise, climbing from $8,300 to $17,000 per year, but the new bylaw did not carry over the automatic increase.
The council has not received any increases since the original bylaw was put in place.
Mayor Allan MacEachern said when municipal reform took place, facilitators who were assigned to the regions took over the budget process. A part of that was evaluating and increasing the stipends paid to mayors and council across the province.
“It’s all based on the size of your community, what services you’re providing,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “There’s a formula.”
During amalgamation, many communities took on more territory, more constituents and increased responsibilities as service providers.
Council, he explained, was not involved in the process of deciding how much money was allocated to each position. All increases and bylaws were passed by the Minister of Local Government and Local Governance Reform at the time.
“I’m not going to lie to you. I was surprised by it,” MacEachern said, when asked what he thought constituents might think about the significant raise in stipend, adding he did ask them to consider keeping it on the lower end.
According to the Government of New Brunswick, the range of salaries for mayors ranges from $9,400 to $88,000.
In comparison, Fredericton’s mayor is paid roughly $81,000 a year. While in Moncton, the mayor receives approximately, $77,000 a year. In Saint John, the mayor’s salary is $88,000 annually.
But he said fiscal reform also needs to be part of the conversation – not just increasing salaries.
“They’re downloading more services onto us. They’re cutting our funding by $200 million all across the province. That’s huge and asking us to do more work. Something’s got to give here,” he said.
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