Voters can now find out what it costs to keep their councils in office and compare notes with other towns, villages a municipalities.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) recently released data on salaries paid to all reeves, mayors and councillors in this province’s 198 municipalities.
The data was gathered over the summer and has now been posted to the CTF’s website www.Taxpayer.com.
Voters can see the monthly indemnities, per diems, mileage costs and expenses paid to their own councillors, mayor or reeve and compare across the province.
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The federation decided to put this information together so voters can decide for themselves if they think they’re getting good value for what they pay to keep a council in office, said the CTF Prairie director Colin Craig.
“Ultimately, this exercise was to provide information for taxpayers so they can decide,” he said.
It’s also to keep local leaders accountable. The CTF felt this was important information so that politicians alone aren’t deciding what to pay themselves.
“Obviously, it’s a conflict of interest for any group of elected officials at any level of government to decide their own pay,” he said.
The online data is grouped for quick comparison between jurisdictions. Each response from municipalities received by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was scanned and posted online at: www.taxpayer.com/node/13167. [email protected]
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“Obviously,it’sa conflictofinterestfor anygroupofelected officialsatanylevel ofgovernment todecidetheir ownpay.”
– COLIN CRAIG, CTF PRAIRIE DIRECTOR
