Moose Jaw's council and mayor have voted in executive committee in favour of giving the next council and mayor a pay increase.

The mayor will receive the same salary as a member of the legislative assembly and councillors will receive one-third of that. If it passes through city council, it will become effective Jan. 1, 2021.

Greg McIntyre from the Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce was on that panel and recommended that the rate of pay of the mayor be equal to that of a Member of the Legislative Assembly.

“The major reason for this, as we were going through the information… is that considering the population of Moose Jaw, we currently have two MLAs and we only have one mayor,” McIntyre said. “The services the MLAs tend to undertake are quite a bit more removed from the average citizen compared to the mayor.”

This year, MLA base pay went up to $100,068 from $98,325 after a cost of living increase of 1.7 per cent, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Premier Scott Moe and Opposition Leader Ryan Meili both voluntarily donated the bonuses this year to charities, and Moe recommended other MLAs do the same.

McIntyre said the compensation model was ‘rather lacking’ when it came to the remuneration of the mayor and council compared to peer cities.

“As we looked at this, and looking at the type of activities we would expect from mayor and council, and what that would be valued in the private sector, we came to the conclusion that some of these skill sets… would be equivalent to the types of skills or compensation we would like to see,” McIntyre said.

Keeping the councillor pay at 1/3 of the mayor’s pay is consistent with that their peers have done.

Coun. Dawn Luhning spoke in favour of the recommendation.

“Honestly, I think that all that matters to me is that this council, made a motion to have a committee do the work, an outside body do the work, and tell us what they thought and believe that we should be paid to do this job,” Luhning said. “And now it’s time to make a decision on this. What I am happy about is that it’s going to start with this new council.”

The raises, if passed successfully through city council, will take effect after the next municipal election and would cost the city an additional $65,000 in 2021.

Councillors Crystal Froese and Brian Swanson opposed the recommendations, but the motion passed five to two. Swanson offered motions of a 20 per cent dock in pay to the mayor and council until the end of October when the new raises would be implemented, and a motion to receive and file the report, effectively ignoring the recommendations. Neither motion passed.

Froese said it was a difficult decision.

“If this was maybe a year ago or so, it would have been a different outcome,” said Froese. “I just really feel like no one else out there is going to be receiving a 20 per cent raise in the midst of this pandemic, private or otherwise.”

She felt the report was well-presented and covered the questions she would have had.