Pay rise for everyone!

During today’s Council meeting, our seven Council Members unanimously voted to give themselves retroactive raises.

Council Members: 25.4% increase. Now get a base rate of $30,887.00 plus expenses, plus any committee pay.

Deputy Mayor: 11.9% increase. Now gets a base rate of $35,336.00 plus expenses, plus about $20,000.00 (based on attendance) for County meetings, plus any committee pay.

Mayor: 40.0% increase. Now gets a base rate of $63,512.00 plus expenses, plus about $20,000.00 (based on attendance) for County meetings, plus WDI board remuneration estimated at $20,000.00, plus any other committee pay.

These increases are a disgusting abuse of power. In order to make the grade, our Council compares themselves to communities like Barrie and Orillia.

I watched each of our Council members speak on the issue. (White and Dileo remained silent) They all defended their increases by describing their workload. I guess they never researched the job before they applied!

Of particular disgust was our Mayor waxing on for the second time I am aware of about a lady who called him in 2014 to complain about snow removal. (He repeated it almost word for word like he did the last time he spoke about snow removal) He uses the story to point out that taxes are higher in Vaughan where she came from. So what? This is Wasaga Beach! He went on to tell us that Collingwood has 70 more employees than Wasaga Beach. I guess he is setting the bar for our inevitable municipal tax increases.

What the current Mayor did NOT do was explain why HE deserved a 40% wage increase. Let me spell that out… A FORTY PERCENT WAGE INCREASE! Im guessing the staff at town hall who do the real work while he is in Florida probably will never see a 40% increase. The Mayors own neighbours up in Tiny Township where he lives, probably won’t see a 40% increase in their wages. I doubt even his own Mayor or Council up in Tiny will see a 40% increase. I wonder how many Wasaga Beach Tax Payers will get 40% increases from their employers? For those retired, or on benefits, will they see 40%?

Some of Council explained their increase;

I believe three of them said they didn’t NEED the money, but they sure took it. More importantly, they GAVE it to each other.

Mayor Smith and Councilor Belanger in the past have both thrown around the phrase “Fiduciary Duty”. Usually, they used it when justifying their attempts to sell WDI. But what about their fiduciary duty when it comes to their own wages?