The Regional District of Central Kootenay is contemplating raises for its directors.
Area D director Aimee Watson says the current annual stipend of $33,000 is far less than what it should be.
“I couldn’t handle a side job,” said Watson, who was elected in 2014 in Area D (north Kootenay Lake) after serving three years as an alternate. “The time this job takes is at least 40 hours a week and that’s with me already putting boundaries on anything to do with provincial or federal [issues] … There’s no way I could add another job to this.”
Watson said the stipend is actually closer to $25,000 since about 30 per cent is cut from the total to pay for an office and staff.
Area B director Tanya Wall (rural Creston) directed staff in January to show what a 20 per cent increase would look like for the 2017 budget. Watson proposed last month that the stipend be raised 10 per cent this year and by another 10 per cent in 2018.
The proposal, Watson said, also stems in part from conversations directors have at at various conferences such as UBCM on how to get younger people running for political positions.
She said there’s just not enough financial incentive to make the job feasible for anyone raising a family, for example. Many directors currently rely on pensions to pay for cost of living as opposed to the stipend, according to Watson.
“The gist of the conversation was at the end of the day, wages or stipends in local government are not actual living wages,” said Watson. “Thus you end up with people who are retired, have other jobs and cannot commit the level of energy that’s required to do a good job.”
The RDCK has delayed a decision on the proposed raise to later this month. Watson said directors need to first consider the financial impact on taxpayers.
“If the hit to the tax base, that’s already quite strapped given our low population but large land base, it’s understandable [the board] would put it off until March,” said Watson.
“They also want to see more information in regards to ways to do this. They recognize it is important. They want more people like myself and Director Wall, who are young women, to shift the energy at the table from being the older retired folks to young people really engaged.”
