Councillor Dick Michel proposed a motion at last night’s meeting of the Weyburn City Council to address the fact that a long-standing federal tax exemption for elected municipal officials will expire in the new year.

Federal legislation passed in 2017 will eliminate a tax exemption for municipal and provincial elected officials in the new year. This legislation, Bill C-44, also received Royal Assent on June 22, 2017.

The soon-to-be-expired exemption saw one-third of mayors' and councillors’ total remuneration as a non-accountable allowance, which was not included in their taxable income.

Bill C-44 will result in substantive changes to after-tax compensation for provincial and municipal elected officials as of January 1, 2019.

“City of Weyburn elected officials will see a decrease in the after-tax compensation around eight and a half per cent,” said Councillor Michel.

He advised a notice of motion for City Council to consider offsetting the remuneration to address the elimination of the one-third tax exemption.

“That the Weyburn City Council approve an adjustment in remuneration of 8.5 per cent, which is outside the current City Council remuneration policy,” he said.

The purpose of this policy is to establish procedures and processes to ensure council remuneration is fair, reasonable and puts Weyburn council closest to the status quo as possible.

“The objective of the motion I put forward this evening, is to protect Weyburn’s officials from an arbitrary pay cut imposed by the federal legislation and to recognize the time commitments of municipal duties,” Michel said.

According to the City of Weyburn, the federal government justified the change on the basis that it “provides an advantage that other Canadians do not enjoy."

According to Section 52 (2) of Saskatchewan’s Cities Act, council members are to be paid any remuneration and reimbursement set by the council. As well, one-third of the total remuneration is deemed to be paid with respect to general expenses incurred that are incidental to the discharge of the duties of a member of the council.

The City of Weyburn’s Council Remuneration Policy states remuneration for mayor and council will be increased Jan. 1, or each calendar year, by the previous year’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) amount. As well, council receives a per diem of $133.77 per day (as of 2018), including travel days, when attending meetings pre-approved outside the City of Weyburn.

This tax exemption was first introduced under the Federal Income Tax Act in 1946, to recognize the work of elected provincial MLAs. It was extended to elected municipal officials in 1953.