Toronto City Council: Status of Councillor Pay Freeze
This entry will be updated regularly as more information comes in. – Last Update – 12:35am – Friday April 10 2009
Toronto City Council has the misfortune at times of being one of the most scrutinized governments in the country. The pay of Toronto City Councillors is a constantly a political football and one that creates a lot of side show fights within Council.
Today’s newspapers saw a lot of talk about a double standard between non unionized city staff whose wages will be frozen this year, and Councillors whose pay will not be. Sixteen members of Council are reported to have not accepted the pay increase. Although this represents a drop in the bucket, it is the right move for Councillors to make and one I support. Unfortunately – newspapers cover Council votes like a vote in a party legislature and only report the for and against totals and not lists of who voted how.
Due to the fact that no one has published an up to date list of who has accepted the increase and who isn’t, and the one list that is available is not easily found through google and three months old, I wanted to make this information available to residents of Toronto. The goal isn’t to scorn anyone, but merely support those who I think did the right thing, in addition to completing the story carried in the papers this morning.
As a policy note – should 23 Councillors agree to freeze their own salary, it is my belief that all Councillor’s salaries should then be frozen as 23 on Toronto City Council is a majority of members and could surely win a vote on this matter if there were not procedural road blocks.
Where Do They Stand?
Starting at 2:26pm with an email to Councillor Ainslie (Ward 43) and finishing at 2:57pm with an email to Mayor Miller, I have written all members of Councillor to find out who these sixteen individuals are.
My first response came from Councillor Carroll’s office (Ward 33) at 2:37pm. In December she requested the increase be donated by to the City. Councillor Carroll is the Budget Chief and set an early example.
Councillor Ootes‘ office (Ward 29) replied next at 2:47pm to confirm he too has declined the increase, in addition to freezing the salaries of his office staff and introduced a motion in January to freeze all Councillors salary.
Councillor Davis‘ office (Ward 31) was next to reply to confirm she filled out the necessary paperwork within minutes of it being available and handed copies of the form out in Council to her collegues as well so that they too could elect to return their cost of living increase.
Councillor Thompson’s office (Ward 37) replied to confirm he had filled out the paperwork to ensure the City did not pay him the increase. His office states he did this some time ago.
Although a formality as media coverage on the Mayor’s actions are well documented, his office did reply to confirm he has frozen both his salary and his office budget.
Councillor Del Grande (Ward 39) personally responded to my email to provide me with additional information and to share some details about his own reaction that really got me thinking about how far these things should go. Del Grande froze his salary at 2006 levels in response to the original increase that passed just before the last election. Instead of taking the increase, Del Grande opted to donate the difference to charities. That means each year he earns just under $10k less than his fellow Councillor’s and rightly seems to believe the politics around this issue is distasteful.
Councillor Heaps’ office (Ward 35) responded to confirm on February 4th 2009 he filled out the necessary paperwork in recognition of the current economic situation.
Councillor Holyday’s office replied to say that the Councillor will not be accepting the increase if the Council votes to freeze the pay of non union staff. His office also noted that he supports a freeze on all Councillors pay.
Councillor Ainslie (Ward 43) replied personally to say that he had donated the net cost of living increase to three local charities that serve Ward 43. The charities were Rouge Valley Health System Foundation, Scarborough Rotary Club and Toronto Public Library Foundation.
Councillor Stintz (Ward 16) replied personally to confirm she had asked the City Clerk to freeze her pay
Councillor Kelly’s office (Ward 40) replied to say the email would be shared with Councillor Kelly.
Councillor Giambrone’s office (Ward 18) replied to confirm that the Councillor will be keeping the 2.4% increase.
Councillor Milczyn (Ward 5) responded personally to confirm he would not be accepting the increase and had submitted the form to the Clerk in January.
Councillor McConnell (Ward 28) replied personally to explain she will be keeping the 2.4% and believes debates like these do a disservice to all Councillors and debates around pay should be held before elections and untouched during the term. [ed. note - I don't disagree with McConnell's view on this point under usual circumstances].
Councillor De Baeremaeker’s office (Ward 38) replied to say the Councillor had opted not to take the increase.
Councillor Ashton (Ward 36) replied with a well made point about the fundamental flaw with the Mayor’s approach to this issue. He rightly points out that the city’s union workers will get a 2-3% increase, non union workers a 0% increase and Councillors will have a voluntary cost of living allowance increase. His point is certainly well taken and had Council have dealt with this issue as he suggested, it wouldn’t have the politics currently tied to this issue that it does.
Councillor Vaughan’s (Ward 20) office confirmed he froze his salary.
Councillor Fletcher’s (Ward 30) office replied to confirm the Councillor had opted not to accept the increase.
Current as of 12:35am – Friday April 10th 2009 (Fifth Update)
Below is the information in list format in order of reply:
Councillors Freezing Pay (13):
- Councillor Carroll, Budget Chief (Ward 33)
- Councillor Ootes (Ward 29)
- Councillor Davis (Ward 31)
- Councillor Thompson (Ward 37)
- Mayor Miller
- Councillor Heaps (Ward 35)
- Councillor Holyday (Ward 3)
- Councillor Stintz (Ward 16)
- Councillor Parker (Ward 26)
- Councillor Milczyn (Ward 5)
- Councillor De Baeremaeker (Ward 38)
- Councillor Vaughan (Ward 20)
- Councillor Fletcher (Ward 30)
Councillors Accepting Increase (2):
- Councillor Giambrone (Ward 18)
- Councillor McConnell (Ward 28)
Councillors Accepting Increase but Report Donating to Charity (2):
- Councillor Del Grande (Ward 39)
- Councillor Ainslie (Ward 43)
- Councillor Ashton (Ward 36)
Councillors Who Have Yet to Reply (26):
- Maria Augimeri
- Sandra Bussin
- Raymond Cho
- Frank Di Giorgio
- Mike Feldman
- John Filion
- Rob Ford
- Mark Grimes
- Suzan Hall
- Cliff Jenkins
- Norm Kelly
- Chin Lee
- Gloria Lindsay Luby
- Giorgio Mammoliti
- Joe Mihevc
- Denzil Minnan-Wong
- Ron Moeser
- Howard Moscoe
- Frances Nunziata
- Cesar Palacio
- Joe Pantalone
- Anthony Perruzza
- Kyle Rae
- Bill Saundercook
- David Shiner
- Michael Walker
Tags: City Council Pay Freeze, Pay Freeze, Pay increase, Toronto City Council, Toronto City Councillors Pay, Wage Freeze
April 9th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
If I’m not mistaken, those Coucillors that have chosen to donate to a charity will be getting a nice little tax deduction (29% of donation) next April.
Interesting!
April 9th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
BM – you are correct that there is a tax benefit to going the charitable donation route.
Two Councillor’s appear to have donated the difference to charity instead of declining the cost of living increase.
In both cases each will still have a gross and a net income larger than their peers, although not the personal benefit of that increase this year.
I’m not faulting any individual who donates any portion of their income to charity, because I do strongly believe we all should do what we can as we can to help others, but I am still debating personally whether the debate on a cost of living increase can be tied or solved by charitable donations.
The idea was cost containment on the City side and for Councillor’s to set an example to other workers by showing restraint. While charitable donations is also a good message to send, it might be a different issue all together.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Donating the increase only means something if it is done over and above normal donations and there is know way of knowing if this is the case.
April 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
where can I find a breakdown of the city’s payroll. I’ve heard that 80% of the budget goes to salaries and wages. Can I verify this anywhere?
April 11th, 2009 at 1:25 am
Kathy – I agree with you that whether a donation is a new donation is important.
What is also difficult for me to decide is whether accepting and donating, is the same as not accepting, particularly when one considers the tax benefits, and the next cost of living allowance and in future years, one would receive the increase.
It may defer receiving it, but is it the same as refusing it?
Thoughts?
April 11th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Scott – Thanks for the question.
Payroll information is very tricky to get out of the City I would imagine as there is a legitimate need to preserve folks private information.
Aggregate figures are available in the financial statements that come out a year after the latest budget. Because it is early 2009, the 2008 figures aren’t available yet, but I was able to explore this question for you using the 2007 financial statements which can be found here.
http://www.toronto.ca/budget2007/pdf/2007far_cfs.pdf
On page 103 the report states:
Salaries, wages and benefits represented $4.165 billion of a $9.368 billion budget. This puts salaries , wages and benefits at 44.5% of the 2007 City budget. The 2006 figures also contained on the same page were $3.87 billion and $8.598 billion, representing approximately 45% of the budget.
The most alarming thing about the 2007 financial statement in my mind was the size of the city’s debt load. The inability of Council to deal with the financial realities they faced even before this latest crisis has put our city’s future on a precarious financial footing.