The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is suggesting reforms are necessary for Mayor Peter Kelly and council’s remuneration system.
CTF-Atlantic director Kevin Lacey said his group is suggesting a cross-section of municipal ratepayers should be convened to determine how much the mayor and councillors take home.
“(Take) a random sample, kind of like you would for jury duty, whereby you call citizens in, you’d have them sit on the committee, and then they would use their own common sense over what councillors and mayors should be paid,” he said.
Lacey pointed to a 1997 commission in British Columbia, where citizens were asked to determine provincial politicians’ salaries. Both the mayor and council will receive a pay increase in November, with Kelly’s salary increasing by 4.04 per cent and a 1.62 per cent raise for councillors.
“The only way we can settle whether or not these are fair or not is by letting citizens themselves make the decisions on what these salaries should be,” Lacey said.
