CVRD directors overpaid
I have to agree with letter writers, John Walker, Bill Dumont, and Simone Black in regards to no pay raises for CVRD directors.
Present wage for a CVRD director is $33,795 per year and a 33 per cent raise of $11,675 would put the wage at $45,470, and this is for a part time job, not like David Lowther’s comments about the job being full time. Many of the directors still work for a living at a regular job. Just try finding a director on weekends, totally impossible. The area population of the Cowichan Valley Regional District is 83,739.
In the Comox Valley Regional District, a director is paid $11,275 per year with a area population of 66,527.
In the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, the chair person, highest paid person in each district is paid $8,767 per year with a area population of 30,981.
In the Nanaimo Regional District, the highest paid director is paid $37,933 per year, but other directors are paid less on a sliding scale down to $11,000 per year, with a area population of 155,698.
In the Capital Regional District, directors are paid between $16,450 to $19,071 per year with a area population of 363,360.
In the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the highest paid director is paid $25,322 per year, and like the Nanaimo Regional District, other directors are paid less on a sliding scale down. The Metro Vancouver Regional District has a area population of 2,463,431.
The above population figures are from the 2016 Canada census.
The above figures just prove how directors in the Cowichan Valley Regional District are presently already overpaid in relation to the other regional districts on the island.
The time will have to come when we see a provincial government that enforces a provincial policy law, that wages and pay raises for elected officials will have to be approved only by the provincial government.
This local decision making in regards to elected officials approving their own wage increases which is happening in all regional districts in the province has to end sooner than later. If not, the taxpayer keeps paying more in taxes.
I have written to the minority B.C. NDP government, minister of municipal affairs, Selina Robinson, and also to the B.C. Liberal opposition critic for municipal affairs, Todd Stone, on this topic, and also for the benefit of David Lowther.
Facts and reality prevail, but in this scenario, that is not happening. Spend, spend, spend. Unbelievable!
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan
