CBRM councillor calls for more transparent expense reporting system

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillor with the lowest expense claims for this term says CBRM’s reporting system needs to be more transparent.

In addition to the annual pay all councillors receive, Dist. 4 Coun. Steve Gillespie has cost CBRM taxpayers a total of $337.50 since being elected in October 2020.

Other councillors have billed a wide variety of amounts up to $22,000 over the same period for travel, accommodations, meals and training.

Gillespie’s expense is listed as a training cost, but if the councillor had his way, his claims would have been zero.

“I just believe that our compensation for being a councillor covers that,” he said.

His sole registered expense was a social media seminar put on by an expert and for accounting reasons, he said, and CBRM administration simply apportioned the cost among all those who attended.

‘I don’t travel’

The Dist. 4 representative describes himself as a “pothole” councillor who mostly stays home and looks after constituents’ concerns.

“I don’t travel to conferences and events in other parts of the province or the country and I don’t sit on any committees that require me to travel to the other parts of Nova Scotia…. I just don’t believe that I should be putting in for expenses when I’m being paid a salary to be the representative,” Gillespie said.

“I believe that my job is to be a local councillor. I like to be involved in the community, roll my sleeves up to what has to be done here for my constituents, and that’s what I have done.”

Gillespie said he doesn’t begrudge other councillors’ legitimate expenses, but he said the system for reporting them lacks detail.

CBRM currently posts council expenses to its website quarterly, usually around 90 days after the quarter ends. A councillor’s name is listed next to their totals for travel, accommodations, meals and training.

No information is provided on where or when a councillor travelled or how much was spent on individual meals.

Mayor Amanda McDougall has made a point of adding “committee reports” to the end of each agenda and encouraging committee members to let council — and the public — know what they’ve been up to. But so far, few committees have reported.

Gillespie said the whole expenses reporting system needs an overhaul, and he plans to bring that up with the next council, if he is re-elected this fall.

“I think that it should be very detailed and I think that that would also explain a lot more to a taxpayer who wants to know why a certain councillor went to a certain conference and what information that they would have received from that conference can be reported back to council in an open forum,” he said.

“That way they know that the information they’re getting is helping the CBRM.”

CBRM council expenses Oct. 2020 – Mar. 31, 2024:

• Mayor Amanda McDougall – $97,878.12
• Dist. 1 Coun. Gordon MacDonald – $14,811.28
• Dist. 2 Coun. Earlene MacMullin* – $15,943.65
• Dist. 3 Coun. Cyril MacDonald – $6,354.75
• Dist. 4 Coun. Steve Gillespie – $337.50
• Dist. 5 Coun. Eldon MacDonald – $21,106.70
• Dist. 6 Coun. Glenn Paruch – $4,450.14
• Dist. 7 Coun. Steve Parsons – $7,756.44
• Dist. 8 Coun. James Edwards** – $22,001.54
• Dist. 9 Coun. Ken Tracey – $6,148.59
• Dist. 10 Coun. Darren Bruckschwaiger – $7,786.82
• Dist. 11 Coun. Darren O’Quinn – $4,141.90
• Dist. 12 Coun. Lorne Green – $12,474.76

*Deputy mayor 2020-2022
**Deputy mayor 2022-2024

The average total expense claims for CBRM councillors over the recent term was about $10,300.

Dist. 5 Coun. Eldon MacDonald incurred the second-highest expenses at $21,000.

That was $1,000 shy of Dist. 8 Coun. James Edwards, who has been deputy mayor for the last two years.

MacDonald said he’s not surprised, because he sits on committees — such as the board of police commissioners and the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities — that require travel.

“To stay home and not travel and not participate and not engage, it’s not the councillor that I would want myself to be,” he said.

“You learn and network with different people and organizations, in particular the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, because you get to network across the country with your colleagues and benefits can come from that.”

MacDonald said in an earlier term, he met a heritage expert who helped CBRM attract federal funding for a pilot project.

The conference was in P.E.I. and his attendance probably cost CBRM about $1,500, he said, while the pilot project wound up bringing in $200,000 in funding.

MacDonald wouldn’t object to more transparency

MacDonald’s district includes Sydney’s downtown, which is currently undergoing major renovations on Charlotte Street, its main commercial strip.

He said some of the tips he has picked up from urban planners at conferences he’s attended over the years have been incorporated into the street redevelopment.

MacDonald said he wouldn’t object if councillors want a more transparent system for reporting expenses, but he feels he’s already accountable if anyone wants to ask him to explain the costs he’s incurred.

Mayor McDougall was unavailable for comment.