The Cariboo Regional District (CRD) policy committee meeting on Sept. 15 included the CRD board’s review of its policy on how and when directors are paid for their time and expenses.
The CRD recently had a comparison study performed with eight other regional districts in British Columbia of a roughly similar size, and determined the CRD remuneration is higher than the overall average.
Committee chair Bruce Rattray says the committee’s report indicates the CRD directors’ average total remuneration, including expenses, is $26,022, compared to the overall nine regional districts’ average of $20,480.
“It was a bit of a reality check, as opposed to a comprehensive survey of regional districts. I think most people were kind of surprised because most people don’t think they get paid very much.”
Rattray says he believes earlier increases had resulted from a similar exercise performed a number of years ago, which found CRD directors were at the bottom of the list.
Columbia-Shuswap Regional District has the only average total rate currently higher than the CRD, at $29,695, and the lowest is seen in Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District at $15,527.
The CRD’s average total expense portion is $7,262, compared to a $4,355 regional district expense average.
No increases were recommended or approved at the policy meeting, he says, adding there have been no directors’ increases for the last couple of years.
“All of the regional districts do this differently and on different schedules … one moves forward and then the others catch up.”
However, increases will go to the CRD’s standing committee chairs and the Cariboo-Chilcotin Regional Hospital Districts vice-chairs.
These executives are currently paid the basic director remuneration plus 10 per cent, which will now increase to the basic plus 25 per cent.
Rattray says this is intended to more accurately reflect the importance and additional duties of these positions.
Most of the discussions at the policy meeting centred on director remuneration for the various meetings they attend, he notes, with some clarifications done to the policy wording.
A few more committee recommendations reviewed were approved, and others denied, mostly relating to expenses and wording clarifications, he adds.
Rattray says the committee isn’t 100 per cent sure what the overall impact on this updated policy is because it took away some things and put other things in.
“There’s no real change in the base rate that people get, aside from the CPI [Consumer Price Index] adjustment, and if the CPI doesn’t go up, you don’t get anything [further].”
