County council remuneration debated

Photo courtesy of Northumberland County

By Cecilia Nasmith

At Tuesday's meeting, Northumberland County council's Corporate Support Committee meeting fine-tuned deliberations on what compensation their successor council will get in its 2026-to-2030 term.

The motion the committee passed will be referred to a larger discussion among the entire county council body at its April 15 meeting, which consisted mainly of confirming previously discussed increases with one significant addition – adding what members referred to as a COLA adjustment for per diems and conference payments.

COLA stands for cost-of-living allowance, and committee members present agreed that an annual cost-of-living adjustment could easily prevent a big sticker-shock increase four years from now when the next council is looking ahead to planning for its successors.

There was little enthusiasm for retirement and health benefits that staff suggested might be possible – though members agreed that this kind of thing would be best decided by a discussion among all members.

“I understand the argument about trying to attract people to the position, but the reality is – nobody runs for county council. They run for mayor,” Chair Brian Ostrander pointed out (because county council consists of the mayors of the seven member municipalities).

“I had no idea what a member of county council makes before I showed up here.

“Nobody putting their name in to run for mayor of a community in Northumberland County looks at county figures and says, 'Oh, that sweetens the pot.'”

These options will be more thoroughly discussed in April. Meanwhile, county council has already opted for an increase to the per diem rate it pays councillors for committee and ad hoc meetings, from a flat $100 to a half-day rate of $123.31 and a full-day rate of $252.31.

Council also previously voted for salaries for councillors and the Deputy Warden to remain essentially unchanged, while the Warden's salary rises slightly to the 60th percentile of comparator municipalities – going from $58,130.88 to $60,471.30.

As for 2025, the report on last year's council remuneration and expenses had been presented earlier that day at the Finance and Audit Committee meeting in a report from Financial Officer Jamey MacKenzie.

MacKenzie prepared a chart listing salary, per diems, mileage-and-conferences, and benefits for each member and for each alternate who had attended that year. The aggregate total of $268,716.60 was actually $21,351 less than what had been budgeted that year.

Salary amounts paid out went to Warden Brian Ostrander ($58,131), Deputy Warden Olena Hankivsky ($28,365.96) and the councillors from the remaining five municipalities ($23,637.60 each), for a total of $204,684.96.

Per diems paid went to Ostrander ($4,500), Hankivsky ($2.900), Robert Crate ($2,100), John Logel ($5,900), Scott Jibb ($1,500), Lucas Cleveland ($1,900) and Mandy Martin ($2,900), with per diems also paid to three alternates - $400 to Michael Metcalf of Trent Hills, and $200 each to Larry Williamson of Hamilton Township and Todd Attridge of Port Hope. This all added up to $22,500.

Benefits (Canada Pension Plan contributions and Ontario Employer Health Tax) were paid to Ostrander ($4,739.58), Hankivsky ($2,261.78), Crate ($501.87), Logel ($575.97), Jibb (1,777.62), Cleveland ($1,809.22), Martin ($517.47), Williamson ($3.90), Metcalf ($7.80) and Attridge ($3.90), for a total of $12,299.11).

Mileage-and-conference payments went to Ostrander ($6,137.77), Hankivsky ($2,514.21), Crate ($5,368.27), Logel ($3,509.32), Cleveland ($6,702.01), Martin ($4,947.59), Metcalf ($141.12) and Attridge ($12.24).