Town council has dumped its mayor and council remuneration task force and instead will have administration come forward with recommendations in the future.

While dissecting the recent recommendations of the public task force, they also agreed to increase the remuneration and expense reimbursement of councillors to $41,832 after the 2021 municipal election. They squashed the idea of providing a per diem to councillors for attending committee meetings.

The mayor's remuneration of $99,600 will remain the same in 2021 but be reviewed in 2023 to ensure it stays within five per cent of the compensation paid to mayors in similar-sized communities.

Only councillors Morgan Nagel and Alex Reed opposed the wage increase.

Nagel said he thought the proposed increase was fair but believes it's simply not the right time.

"While I think the job is worth it, I think we live in an economic climate right now where there are lots of people who aren't getting paid what they're worth."

Even though the wage increase doesn't take place until after the next municipal election, Reed believes it is self-serving for the current council to vote for a pay raise. He suspects everyone on council has aspirations to be re-elected to another term.

"I repeatedly stated during the budget process, council should lead by example. There are a number of families, individuals, and businesses in our community who are suffering financially, some of them very seriously, as a result of the poor economy which is showing no signs of letting up or getting better soon."

"I think it is insensitive, self-serving, and shows a complete disregard for members of our community."

On the other side of the fence, councillor Tara McFadden said the workload has increased substantially this term and the increase is warranted. While being on council is defined as a part-time job, she believes you are always on duty as a council.

"The workload has increased, the population that we're servicing has increased, the complexity of the issues that we're facing has increased, and the expectations from the public have increased," she stated.

Councillor Susan Flowers said council should stand by the task force recommendations because of the extensive research they completed. She believed the report demonstrates compensation is falling way behind.

"We should be putting this forward for the next council and have it in place so that we attract people that are right for the job and they are paid fairly for what they are doing."

Council turned down the idea of a per diem for attending committee meeting. The task force had recommended that councillors receive $100 for meetings 2-4 hours in length and $200 for anything over four hours in duration.

Councillor Marni Fedeyko was among those uncomfortable with the idea of being paid to sit on a committee while community members on the same body would receive nothing.

"My fear is that you're going to have councillors step forward to sit on committees because it's additional money for a paycheque and not be there for the right reasons."

She said she would be more comfortable with the idea if other committee members were also compensated.

In seeking the elimination of the task force, Councillor Morgan Nagel said its members put a great deal of work into something council tends to ignore.

"I always feel like I totally waste those people's time," he says.

Mayor Genung pushed for it to become an administrative process.

"We spend more time on 0.01 per cent of the budget than we do on the other 99.9," said Genung.