ATHABASCA – Athabasca County councillors found themselves in a predicament during their June 27 council meeting after a consultant’s report noted a recent change from an honorarium to a salary and per diem model had increased their compensation more than intended.
Councillor compensation jumped from $59,278 under the 2022 honorarium model, to $76,319 with per diems, with the reeve and deputy reeve seeing similar increases.
Moving from an honorarium to a per diem rate meant councillors would be compensated for their different committees in addition to a salary. Some councillors attend 50 additional meetings a year, while others only attend 20, leading to a discrepancy of $6,000 in pay.
“When we took this job, it was an honorarium,” said Coun. Gary Cromwell. “We knew what to expect coming into it. We did not come in here with a per diem rate, and I think it was ill-advised to go to a per diem rate.”
The policy was meant to compensate councillors at the 50th percentile compared to their peers in the counties of Barrhead, Westlock, Thorhild, and Woodlands.
Improve Consulting Group expanded that list to include the counties of Big Lakes, Clearwater, Lac Ste. Anne, Sturgeon, and the M.D. of Lesser Slave River. When they did the math, they found Athabasca’s councillors had risen from 97 per cent of the average rate to 125 per cent.
Other councillors said the report had one noticeable issue — the modeling was based off the 24 mandatory council meetings but didn’t include other mandatory committees — and pushed for the process to slow down.
“I would like to see this ideally be a 9-0 vote,” said Reeve Brian Hall. “We didn’t get it right in six months, I don’t think it’s wise to, having seen the (report) seven days ago, jump on this.”
Months of work
Councillors spent six months last year discussing a change to their compensation package at the recommendation of Pat Vincent, who held the CAO position on an interim basis while the county looked for a full-time candidate.
“You want to attract leaders in the community and most of them have other occupations,” said Vincent in August 2023. Vincent said the councillors were being taxed on mileage, among other things, which he believed shouldn’t be the case.
Improve was brought on to review the policy after a contentious discussion during the Feb. 13 council meeting earlier this year. A clause in the policy states it should be reviewed at the mid-point of each council, and the present council passed that point a month before the policy was officially adopted.
Councillors voted 5-4 — Hall, alongside councillors Ashtin Anderson, Camille Wallach and Natasha Kapitaniuk opposed — in favour of hiring a third-party to review the policy, which passed in October 2023 and took effect Jan. 1. The review cost the county $7,700 to conduct.
“Councillors have different lifestyles, and some can make more commitments than others,” said Kapitaniuk. “This rate doesn’t compete with good-paying jobs. It’s something to say, ‘If you had to take the day off of work, or pay for health care, here.’ Without the per diem, you can’t be mandated to go to your other meetings.”
Councillors are paid $465 for meetings of eight hours or longer, $310 for four-hour to eight-hour meetings, and $155 for less than four hours.
Improve Consulting brought two recommendations forward for councillors. The first would move them back to an honorarium model, where the reeve is paid $68,000, the deputy reeve is paid $63,000, and councillors receive $58,350.
The second option would keep the per diem, but reduce the rates, topping out at $315 for eight or more hours of meetings.
“I’m on the same notion that we should be getting back to where we should be as a council,” said Coun. Rob Minns.
Councillors Tracy Holland, Minns and Cromwell voted against a motion to refer the discussion to the July 16 committee of the whole meeting, which passed with a 6-3 vote.
“We fixed a lot of things, but we should look at the comparable and try to be in-line with the comparable so the next people who take a shot at the job have a place to be,” said Coun. Joe Gerlach. “We should try and get it right, not only for us, but for the next group that will be filling these chairs. I know someone else will be filling this chair.”
