Edmonton city council rejects motion to cut the mayor's salary

Edmonton mayor denied request to lower pay City council voted to deny the mayor's offer to reduce his salary. CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny explains why.

How much Edmonton city councillors and the mayor should get paid was up for discussion on Thursday.

The Independent Council Compensation Committee presented its final 2024 report – recommending there be no change to the base salaries of the mayor or councillors.

Their salaries are automatically adjusted each year based on the average weekly earnings of Albertans from Statistics Canada.

Each city councillor will make $122,363 this year, not including benefits.

"Our salaries have gone up and they have gone down," said Councillor Andrew Knack.

"Because they are tied to the average weekly earnings of Albertans, and I really do like that that’s the point the independent committee uses because we benefit or lose just like the average Albertan does," he added.

The city's top job comes with an even bigger salary. The mayor's salary is listed at $216,585 for 2024.

"I think the salaries of all public officials are scrutinized and rightfully so, they should be," said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.

"I think that scrutiny is absolutely important but we also need to make sure that salaries are not politicized, that we have an independent process in place that allows that decision to be non-political, impartial and based on the data and analysis the citizens group have conducted," he added.

But the mayor did try to interfere in that process by putting forward a motion to cut his salary by about $3,000.

"My understanding is that prior to 2018 both Edmonton mayor and Calgary mayor were paid the same then over the years Edmonton froze salaries for two years, Calgary did for three years so that created a discrepancy," said Sohi.

Sohi said the role of the mayors of Alberta's two largest cities are similar and their salaries should reflect that.

"What I was trying to do is close the gap in the discrepancy," he said.

His motion for a pay-cut was rejected by council.

"His heart was in the right place. I get why he’s asking that question," said Knack.

"That motion, if passed, would have been setting his own salary. We have purposely designed a process to not set our own salaries," he added.

The Independent Council Compensation Committee was established in 1999 designed to give the public confidence their pay is determined fairly.

"We’re not going to start getting involved in a process depending on which way the political winds are blowing because the minute you do that you open yourself up to what happens provincially, what happens federally over and over and over again which is people constantly finding ways to try to score points using salaries instead of saying it’s based off good evidence, good data, good research," said Knack.

The mayor said he understands why his colleagues didn't support his motion.

"I felt it was important for me to articulate that the responsibilities of both mayors are the same, we work in the same context with the relationship with the provincial government, federal government, complexities of both cities are the same so I felt that the gap that it is should have been dealt with," Sohi said.

Knack said the proper way to address the issue is to direct the independent commission to look into it.

"That's how you handle a process where you have those concerns about inconsistencies or you have those concerns that are being raised by the public," he said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny