How Much Did Meaford Councillors Earn in 2021?

As required by the Municipal Act, the annual statement of remuneration for Meaford’s members of council was publicly released in a report to Council during their February 28 meeting.

Section 284 of the Municipal Act requires that on or before March 31st, the municipal Treasurer shall provide to the Council of the Municipality an itemized statement on remuneration and expenses paid in the previous year to each member of council in respect of his or her services as a member of council or any other body, including a local board. Further, the Treasurer is required to include each person appointed by the Municipality to serve as a member of any body, including local boards.

The total cost to Meaford ratepayers for all council salaries, life insurance, and sundry expenses in 2021 was $188,999.44.

Mayor Barb Clumpus earned taxable remuneration of $34,645.14 in 2021, while Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney was paid $27,753.82 .

The full list of council remuneration in 2021 released by the municipality is below:

*Updated March 14, 2022 with revised data released by the municipality.

Remuneration provided to local board members in 2021 is below:

LOCAL BOARDS (Committee of Adjustment)
Taxable Annual Remuneration	Taxable Life Insurance	Non-Taxable Remuneration	Sundry Expenses	Total Costs 2021

Unlike most other years, only Mayor Clumpus and Councillor Kentner claimed any sundry expenses as the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of most conferences and training opportunities that members of council often attend.

In November of 2021 council approved recommendations from the Council Remuneration Committee that will see pay increases for the positions of Mayor and Deputy Mayor beginning this year.

The committee, which is made up of three Meaford residents, Miranda Lahtinen, an experienced forensic accountant, Ted Mallett, a past vice-president and Chief Economist with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and current Director of Forecasting with the Conference Board of Canada, and Phil Cant, a retired CIBC District Manager, made a presentation to Council during their November 15, 2021, meeting.

For five months from May through October of last year, the committee convened with a mandate to provide an independent review of the compensation for members of Council.

The committee’s presentation to council in November noted that while remuneration for regular council members is in line with 17 comparator communities, Meaford’s mayoral position remuneration of $32,200 is 26 percent below the median ($43,730) of the 17 municipalities the committee used for comparison, and Meaford’s deputy mayor position pays $26,200, compared to the median of comparator communities of $29,270, nearly 11 percent below.

The committee recommended establishing firm ratios between councillor, deputy mayor, and mayoral remuneration that would see a councillor paid $25,000 per year, with the position of deputy mayor to earn 125 percent of the councillor remuneration, which would equal $30,700, and the mayoral position would be paid 185 percent of the councillor pay, which would equal $45,400.

The committee noted that had these remuneration rates been in place the previous year, it would have added just $16,000 to the municipality’s overall operating budget.

“Members of the committee were committed to ensure that the compensation provided is fair and reasonable and will attract a diverse and representative pool of candidates from the Municipality of Meaford residents wishing to seek election to council, and is seen as fair by tax payers,” noted committee member Phil Cant during the November presentation to Council.