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Opinion: Burnaby’s mayor earns more money than Vancouver’s. Huh

Let me be clear from the start about this blog post – it’s not designed to criticize how much money municipal politicians earn. I believe in a good wage for civic politicians because it’s a tough, demanding and important job.
Hurley office
Mayor Mike Hurley sits at his desk in his office at Burnaby City Hall.

Let me be clear from the start about this blog post – it’s not designed to criticize how much money municipal politicians earn.

I believe in a good wage for civic politicians because it’s a tough, demanding and important job. We also need to attract people from all walks of life – not just wealthy ones – and pay a good wage.

Now that I have this out of the way, I want to express how weird it is looking at all of the salaries of Metro Vancouver mayors in one place.

That place would be a list compiled by excellent CBC reporter Justin McElroy. Please read his story here.

According to his chart, Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley ($176,000) earns about $2,000 more than Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart ($174,000) (the guy who quit on his Burnaby South constituents to run in Vancouver, forcing a costly federal byelection).

Hurley making more money surprised me because I always imagined that the mayor of B.C.’s largest city would make significantly more than the other mayors because the city is so much bigger.

Burnaby is the province’s third-biggest city, with a large population gap between it and Vancouver.

There’s more to the Burnaby numbers than you might think.

In May, council voted pay hikes with Hurley having about $37,000 added to his salary. The increase was meant to offset the elimination of a tax break for local politicians. Before Jan. 1, 2019 mayors and councillors didn’t have to pay federal income tax on one-third of their income. Now they have to pay taxes on every dollar they make, resulting in a net loss in income.

Discover Burnaby

In January, Vancouver council voted themselves 2.7% pay increases.

So, Hurley received a large recent adjustment and now, according to McElroy’s list, Hurley is the highest-paid mayor in Metro Vancouver.

Surrey’s mayor makes $146,000, despite having double the population than Burnaby.

Population size isn’t everything, but having to manage a bigger city logically means you have more work to do, right? More area and more staff to manage.

According to the list, New West Mayor Jonathan Cote makes $20,000 more than the mayor of Abbotsford, Henry Braun, despite having half the population. Braun only makes $13,000 more than the mayor of tiny Pitt Meadows, a city that only has 18,000 citizens.

Does that make sense? Should population dictate how much a mayor makes? Not in all cases, but when you look at Braun’s wage, it seems a little ridiculous.

I was just a little shocked when I saw those numbers. I’m not saying anyone is overpaid – if anything, I think a few mayors look underpaid for the size of cities they run.

Anyways, feel free to tweet me at @shinebox44 with your thoughts on this issue.