Committee recommends pay increase for Brantford councilors after next election

Those elected to Brantford City Council following the October 2026 election will be paid about $45,000 a year.

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That’s up from the current salary of $37,451 councilors are now paid.

But does the increase reflect the reality and responsibilities of the job?

That was the question city councilors debated for close to an hour Tuesday after receiving a report from the Citizen’s Remuneration Review Committee.

The committee recommended, among other things, that advisors be paid $32.71 an hour and that their pay be based on a 25-hour work week. It’s recommended the increase take effect Jan. 1, 2027. Economic adjustments, based on negotiated agreements with city hall staff, will be added to the hourly rate over a three-year period starting in 2025.

Under the plan, the councilors will be part of a city hall pay grid.

City councilors recommended approval of the proposal at Tuesday’s committee-of-the-whole meeting.

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Although, city hall officials couldn’t provide specific dollar figures, it’s anticipated that newly elected councilors will be paid around $45,000 to $46,000 a year.

Coun. Greg Martin, (Ward 3) supported the recommendation.

“Placement on the (pay) grid is just a convenient way to change it (councillor remuneration) from one increase every four years to a yearly increase,” Martin said.

The Ward 3 councilor said the increase is less than four per hundred a year over four years.

“It’s not out of line with what some of the people are getting in the private sector and public sector,” Martin said. “I really like what the committee did by putting councilors on the grid because it allows it (remuneration) to go up annually instead of a big job with the new council.”

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Coun. Linda Hunt provided a different perspective on the issue.

“I do think the public should know that the recommendation to pay councilors based on what we’ve heard from our human resources department is what an entry-level administrative assistant makes working for the city,” Hunt said. “That does not speak well to recognizing the work, the leadership required and the sheer decision making that we have to do here as a single tier municipality.”

The citizen’s committee also recommended that the mayor’s remuneration remain the same at just over $120,000 a year, when the new council takes office on Jan. 1, 2027.

The citizen’s committee recommendation is based on a comparison with what mayors of other municipalities of similar size to Brantford are paid. The salaries paid to the mayors of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Chatham-Kent range between a low of $110,000 to a high of $116,000.

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Mayor Kevin Davis said the comparison doesn’t tell the whole story.

Mayors of lower tier municipalities like Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo are also paid for serving on regional council. They also receive stipends for serving on various boards bringing their compensation to more than $200,000, Davis said.

The mayor said appropriate compensation for the mayor’s position is important to attract qualified candidates of all ages.

Davis also said being an elected official isn’t what it used to be.

When he was on city council in the 1980s, early 1990s, elected officials were respected and the job was seen as being similar to a volunteer position. That’s no longer the case.

“I’ll tell you this, it’s unbelievable the amount of abuse, harassment, coercion that you’re exposed to,” Davis, who will not be seeking a third term, said. “It’s a workplace, the days of people volunteering for this sort of thing, they’re gone.

“If you want good qualified people to run for elected office then I suggest you’ve got to compensate them accordingly.”

Davis said he knows of no other workplace where someone is expected to tolerate the kind of workplace abuse and harassment that politicians are subjected to.

As a result, far fewer people are willing to run for elected office, the mayor said.

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