Councillor Keith McGrath admits that council made a mistake in accepting a raise and shooting down an amendment put forth by Councillor Tyran Ault that would’ve left the debate regarding a raise to a separate committee.
The raise was baked into the Wood Buffalo Recovery Committee by-law which will see part-time councillors get a pay bump to $75,000 per year and $150,000 for three full-time councillors to sit on the committee along with the Mayor, six members of the public will form the rest of the committee, they will not be compensated for their time.
“We failed, we failed and I’d be the first to say we failed in the timing of it, we failed in the approach of it but again I made that commitment to my colleagues on Jun. 8, so I didn’t want to be wishy-washy about it,” said McGrath on ROCK 97.9 Friday morning. “I’ll go on record saying that if somebody comes Tuesday with a notice of motion to make all this go away because our bosses our citizens are not happy with it, I would support it 100 per cent.”
McGrath voted against Ault’s motion and in favor of the by-law which included the raises.
The three full-time councillors are Sheldon Germain, McGrath, and Allan Vinni who will work full-time on the Committee alongside the Mayor.
There is a stipulation in the by-law that allows councillors to refuse the pay raise, McGrath has already said that he’s denying himself the extra cash along with Councillors Tyran Ault and Jane Stroud along with Mayor Melissa Blake.
While McGrath is willing to support a notice of motion to eliminate an increase in compensation, he won’t however table that motion himself.
“I don’t want to be the grandstander but I can tell you what, there’s ten other members of council and I can guarantee you that somebody will because we listen to our bosses [the taxpayer] and I because I just said it publicly I don’t want to be the guy to bring it forward but I would support it 100 per cent.”
Conversations regarding a raise and the creation of the Wood Buffalo Recovery Committee were first raised during an in-camera session on Jun. 8, in Edmonton.
