ATHABASCA –Athabasca County councillors voted to return their pay scale to its original honorarium structure after a 2023 change bumped their pay by more than a third.
“Less than a year ago, upon taking the best advice we had, we made a decision, and while I would maintain we made the best decision we could make at the time with the information we had, it’s apparent to me that with the new research, we got that wrong and we missed the mark,” said Reeve Brian Hall during the Sept. 26 council meeting.
Effective Dec. 1, council pay will be set at the following rates: the reeve will earn $68,000, the deputy reeve will earn $63,000, and councillors will earn $58,350. Under the current per diem model, councillors are earning an average of $76,000 a year, the deputy reeve is earning $81,000, and the reeve is earning $91,000.
“I accept that this seems to be the direction that council wishes to move in,” said Coun. Ashtin Anderson. “I think that a reasonable compromise is to give councillors a couple of months’ notice of significant changes to the compensation structure, so I think Dec. 1 is a great compromise.”
During the Sept. 17 committee of the whole meeting, the committee voted to recommend the policy take effect Oct. 1, but Anderson’s amendment to push it back two months passed with a 6-3 vote — councillors Gary Cromwell, Rob Minns, and Tracy Holland were opposed.
“I think our ratepayers did not get notice when we took such a hefty pay increase, and as such we owe it to them to do the right thing and make the change right away,” said Cromwell, who urged his colleagues to vote against the amendment.
The motion to adopt the honorarium model passed with a 6-3 vote, with Anderson, Cromwell, and Coun. Camille Wallach opposed.
“I personally could not vote in favour of the motion granting more time of higher pay. We did not give notice when the wages were increased. I fully support the decision made today as I have thus far to remove the per diem charges,” said Cromwell in an email after the meeting.
“I am very happy to see that the issue is now closed, and we are going back to what I believe is a reasonable and fair compensation package. However, I do of course stand behind the full decision made by council.”
How did we get here?
Under the leadership of then-interim CAO Pat Vincent, the county changed its compensation structure to a per diem model, meaning councillors would be paid for each meeting they attended, alongside a smaller base salary. When the change was made, a small sample size of similar municipalities was used to find the rate, but a later review by a third party found that, upon increasing the sample size, Athabasca County was overpaid.
Despite unanimously agreeing they needed to fix the policy, it took councillors months to get this point. Council split into two factions: one half wanted to revert to the honorarium model, while the other wanted to keep the per diem structure with adjusted rates.
“Councillors have different lifestyles, and some can make more commitments than others,” said Coun. Natasha Kapitaniuk during an earlier council meeting. “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.”
The honorarium eventually won out, with multiple Sept. 17 votes on the topic ending in a 5-4 split. Hall, and councillors Kapitaniuk, and Anderson and Wallach were in favour of keeping the per diems, while councillors Holland, Minns, Cromwell, Joe Gerlach, and Kelly Chamzuk wanted to bring back the honorarium.
