Kimberley council will be updating the its remuneration bylaw with likely increases to council pay for next term.
The mayor currently earns $38,629 annually while councillors earn $19,313.
It is a little lower then a lot of similar-sized municipalities across B.C.
That includes Fernie, where the mayor makes $46,556 or Trail where the mayor makes $40,371.
Kimberley mayor Don McCormick said the optics around a pay raise are never great and wishes there was a different system in place.
“This is probably across the province for every municipality the most difficult issue that they deal with. How many people in your professional lives are tasked with giving yourself a raise,” he said.
“Honestly I find it disheartening that the province doesn’t have a policy that can be applied around this.”
Councillor Woody Maguire doesn’t expect too much backlash as it will be for a future council and the public can decide who that is.
“I don’t think that upping the rates by a couple thousand dollars to come more in line with other communities is going to bring a lot of heat, especially since we’re doing it at the end of the term,” he said.
‘It isn’t for us it will be for the next council and if someone has an issue with that they can vote us out.”
Staff will be developing an updated remuneration bylaw which will come back to council before this term is over.
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