Denley: Some Ottawa city councillors want a big pay raise. They shouldn’t get it.

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Some Ottawa city councillors are quietly working on a proposal to give themselves a double-digit raise. To call the idea untimely would be an understatement. Ottawa is facing significant public service layoffs, our city government is struggling with a transit deficit, and the city is in negotiations with eight unions.

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Still, some councillors want more money. How much and when have been the subject of discussions at City Hall for weeks. A notice of motion proposing a raise is expected soon, but it’s not yet clear whether the pro-raise group constitutes a majority of council.

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Coun. Riley Brockington, for one, passed up the opportunity to talk pay raises in an interview. In a statement, he said, “Talks have been ongoing with members of council for many months, with a number of options being considered. The motion has not yet been finalized and a few discussions are still needed.”

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The perceived need for higher pay stems from recent big raises for Toronto city councillors and provincial MPPs, councillors say. In March, Toronto city councillors awarded themselves a stunning $33,000 raise, pushing their salaries from $137,537 to $170,588.  MPPs, whose salaries had been frozen since 2009, boosted their pay from $116,500 to $157,350, still considerably less than what a Toronto city councillor makes.

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In Ottawa, salaries of between $137,000 and $150,000 have been discussed by councillors. They currently make $119,654. In 2022, when they were elected, the job paid $111,000. Since then, councillors have received three annual increments of 2.5 per cent, a figure tied to the raises for non-unionized managers at the city.

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It’s convenient for Ottawa councillors to point to the pay of their Toronto counterparts, but the workload is not the same. Ottawa has 24 councillors to serve 1.1 million people. Toronto has 25 councillors and three million people.

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A better comparator can be found in a consulting report presented to councillors in January. The consulting firm MNP compared Ottawa to other major Canadian cities and concluded, “We have found that the current remuneration for elected officials in Ottawa aligns with the median market rate. Therefore, data-driven results across comparators’ research do not indicate that a salary increase is needed presently.”

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Even if councillors could make a good case for more money, and they can’t, the timing of such a request is lousy. Among the unions the city is currently negotiating with are the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the city’s two largest. A big raise for councillors would be like gold for union officials at the negotiating table.