FILE PHOTO - Kelowna city council

Kelowna city council voted last year to give itself a 35 per cent raise, and it's now in full effect as their month-long holiday from the council chamber comes to a close.

Council voted to give themselves a pay raise because they said their pay should reflect how much time they spend on council business, and be closer to what councils in other municipalities get.

The mayor now gets $145,200 per year, which is up from $126,497. Councillors now get $58,080, an increase from $42,991.

The pay raise amounts to 35 per cent for councillors and 15 per cent for the mayor.

Council voted for the pay raise on March 25, 2024, but the full pay hike came into effect at the start of 2025. Councillors Rick Webber, Mohini Singh and Gord Lovegrove opposed the raise.

“I will support this today... I think all my colleagues around the table work very, very hard. All of you work hard. We try to do the best we can,” councillor Maxine DeHart said in the meeting in March.

Kelowna council wasn’t alone in giving itself a raise, but other municipalities increased council’s pay to keep up with inflation rather than catch up with the provincial average.

“I don’t think our municipal politicians should be racing to see who can profit the most off the taxpayer dollar,” Carson Binda, BC director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, told iNFOnews.ca shortly after the March vote.

READ MORE: Kelowna city council gives itself a 35% pay hike

Before the vote, Kelowna’s councillors were making less than the average British Columbian councillor, but now they are slightly above the median.

The median pay for mayors in B.C. at the time of the vote was $140,500 and for councillors it was $54,300.

"They should have kept it tied to the Consumer Price Index and not given themselves these ridiculous raises that we’re seeing,” Binda previously said.

Statistics Canada reported the median income for men in 2021 in the Central Okanagan was $48,000 per year, while women got $36,800. The data includes both full-time and part-time work.

Council has 35 regular council meetings on the calendar for 2025, but the mayor and council spend additional time sitting on other committees, and going through reports.

Councillors also get medical and dental benefits valued at $5,111 per year. Mayor and council submit expenses to the city.

Mayor Tom Dyas submitted $14,176 in expenses in 2023. Mayor and council submitted a total of $48,635 in expenses, according to the 2023 Statement of Financial Information.

Singh was one of the councillors who spoke against the increase back in March.

“We all do work extremely hard but giving ourselves a 30 per cent increase is a bit too much,” Singh said.

— With files from Rob Munro.

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