It’s an election year, and the District’s annual Statement of Financial Information is required reading for would-be council candidates and voters wanting a peek behind the curtain.
Required by the province’s Financial Information Act, each year the SOFI details the wages, benefits and expenses of employees on the municipal payroll.
This year Mayor Patricia Heintzman received a salary of $74,763, in addition to $6,255 in benefits. That accounts to a nine per cent raise over the previous year.
The majority of councillors, including Ted Prior, Susan Chapelle, Peter Kent and Karen Elliott earned $33,642, and around $5,500 in benefits, a similar nine per cent increase.
Councillors Doug Race ($34,583) and Jason Blackman-Wulff ($34,881) had slightly higher salaries.
Expenses vary by councillor. The lowest amounts were $291 claimed by Race and $1,525 claimed by Kent. Prior claimed $3,579, Blackman-Wulff claimed $3,878, Chapelle $4,237 and Elliott $4,894.
Compared with 2016, Mayor Heintzman’s expenses stayed consistent at $10,979.
Expenses include travel, training and conferences.
As in previous years, Linda Glenday, the District’s chief administrative officer, is the highest salaried employee making $175,083 a year, plus expenses.
General manager of corporate services Robin Arthurs is the second highest paid employee, followed by general manager Gary Buxton.
The SOFI only individually lists employees who make over $75,000 a year. This year, 56 employees made that list, up from 45 in the previous year.
Fourteen fortunate employees had their remuneration increase by over five per cent in 2017. Among that group, four employees, including Fire Chief Bill Stoner and HR manager Jeff Sim, saw a 10 per cent increase in their compensation.
Overall payroll costs increased to $16.8 million in 2017 from $15.85 million in 2016.
The District didn’t need to provide any severance agreements in 2017, according to the document. In 2017, the District had 10 contracts for over $1 million.
The largest individual payment is the $5.3 million spent on the local RCMP.
Other large contracts include the SLRD, Gravity Construction, Carney’s Waste Systems [Now called Green For Life] and Alpine Paving.
In total, the District paid $39.7 million to suppliers over the course of the year.
***Correction: The original version of this story listed overall payroll costs in 2016 at $13.3 million. Actual overall costs in 2016 were $15.85 million.
