Two candidates in the upcoming municipal election said that if elected, they won’t accept the $6,000 car allowance provided to city councillors.
Cumberland Ward candidate Stephen Blais and Bay Ward candidate Mark Taylor said they will not accept the allowance provided to councillors to compensate them for use of their own vehicles. Councillors are also provided with a transit pass.
It is important for city councillors to show fiscal restraint, said Blais.
Taylor agreed.
“In our current economic climate, with the city in need of every single dollar we ask for from taxpayers, I do not think it is realistic to finance elected officials’ daily travel…to ask our residents to pay for their councillors to travel to and from work each day while they are left to pay these themselves in their own daily lives,” he said.
Councillors are not required to submit receipts for their allowances.
Blais said if he is elected and city council decides against the elimination of the unaccountable car allowance, he will donate his allowance to charitable groups in Orleans-Cumberland.
