Halifax mayor, councillors reduce 8.4 per cent pay hike for council

Halifax council has voted to reduce a salary hike of 8.4 per cent the mayor and councillors received last month and cap future pay increases, citing concerns about optics.

During a meeting of regional council earlier this week, Deputy Mayor Cathy Deagle Gammon introduced a motion to make changes to an administrative order that provides for automatic adjustments to the salaries of the mayor and councillors every year on Nov. 1.

The order, which was created in 2017, calculates the salaries based on Nova Scotia’s average weekly earnings, as reported by Statistics Canada.

This year, those earnings rose by 8.4 per cent in November, handing all members of HRM council a raise of the same amount last month.

This saw Mayor Mike Savage’s salary increase from $190,072 to $196,915, while deputy mayor Gammon’s salary went from $101,483 in 2023-23 to $105,173 and councillors’ salaries went from $92,258 to $95,579, effective Nov. 1.

Gammon’s motion this week seeks to cap future salary increases to four per cent and make this retroactive to the first day their raises came into effect last month.

She said she believes a cap is needed to prevent uncomfortably large pay increases, now and in the future.

“When the compensation came through to us, and the 8.4 per cent was there, I found that concerning,” Gammon told council Tuesday.

“When the formula was designed, it was a good formula, but it was without a cap. And I don’t think anyone at the time would have thought that Nova Scotia would increase the national average (weekly earnings).”

‘Not reasonable’

Savage said he had been tracking the average earnings, and in October they had been at around four per cent, only to jump to 8.4 per cent a month later.

“We can’t take that. It’s not reasonable,” he said.

Savage said he does not believe in apologizing for his salary as a politician, but he did note that unlike some provincial politicians, neither he nor HRM councillors receive a car allowance or severance pay when they leave office.

But he did acknowledge that as mayor, he receives a “significantly” higher salary than other councillors. That’s why he amended Gammon’s motion to add a cap of just two per cent for future pay increases for the mayor, while councillors’ salaries would be capped at four per cent.

Other councillors had mixed feelings about what to do about their pay, with some noting they felt “awkward” discussing what to do with their own salaries.

Coun. Sam Austin suggested council should tie any salary increases to municipal union rates of increase. This would put council members on more equal footing with city employees who provide essential services, he said.

But Coun. Pam Lovelace noted this would give council less control over other potential large future increases if unions successfully negotiate higher pay bumps for their employees.

She also raised concern about determining the wages of future councils, and noted that provincial politicians receive greater resources, including more staff, and that some have smaller constituencies than some HRM councillors.

‘We’re recruiting talent’

“I think that it’s important also to recognize that there are people in this room that took this job, and accepted a pay decrease,” Lovelace added.

“We need to be able to ensure that we have talent, that we’re recruiting talent, we have the opportunity to have talent coming in to put their name on the ballot and to be elected to represent this incredible municipality.”

Ultimately, the motion to cap salaries at four per cent for councillors and two per cent for the mayor, effective as of Nov. 1, 2023, passed unanimously.

This will mark the second consecutive year HRM council members have received a raise.

The administrative order formula awarded a 3.6 per cent pay increase last year.

In 2020 and 2021, council voted to freeze their salaries due to the pandemic. Savage also said in 2020 he planned to donate 20 per cent of his salary to a charity, citing concerns about financial hardships being felt by Halifax residents during the pandemic.