Population:

Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster: 291,000

Port Coquitlam: 58,000

Equivalent to the size of the Tri-cities (PoCo 58,000 + PoMo30,000 + Coq 125,000 = 213,000 or 73% the size of Doncaster)

From the Mayor of Doncaster's Press Release

“cut his salary from £73,000 to £30,000”

(£30,000 = $53,774.24 CDN - www.xe.com)

This is not much different from my current salary. However, I am not sure if we should be asking our elected politicians to work for less and why we should be asking our elected politicians to be treated differently from our staff. How many people reading this BLOG have gone to their employers and suggested they make less during this recession?

Further, this year we brought together a citizens committee to review the council remuneration. The committee compared the remuneration of PoCo with other municipalities the same size. They found that PoCo council is, on average, paid 30% less then others. However, given the recession the committee and council agreed that now is not the time for a pay increase.

BTW, the Mayor of Doncaster, is a retired university teacher, so I am sure he is receiving a government pension and collecting his mayoral salary – double dipping!

“town councillors cut from 63 to just 21”

This should have been done LONG ago.  If you think PoCo Council meetings are long with each Councillor and Mayor saying his / her piece on an issue, imagine an additional 57 speeches!  The savings on hydro alone with the "councillor reduction" must be huge! Not to mention the volume of paper required to produce 63 agendas and other printed material!

In Port Coquitlam we only have 6 councillors. Under Legislation we are permitted to have 8 but at this time we do not need to spend the extra money for more councillors. (We also put this issue to the voters in 2005). BTW, the city councillors in the two cities receive about the same base salary, but instead of 6 people sharing the work load there are 21.  Other than agreeing with each other, I have no idea what those additional councillors would be doing. (It is interesting to note that Vancouver – population approx. 570,000 - has only 10 councillors.) I guess being blessed with a hard working and efficient City Council has me thinking this way.

Further, in Doncaster each councillor receives the following additional stipend:

For chairing a committee: $11,256 per year

For vice-chairing a committee: $4,558 per year

Port Coquitlam City Council members each chair and co-chair at least one committee, as well as serve on other task forces and committees in our community. There is no additional remuneration for this responsibility and additional workload.

Total equivalent cost for a Port Coquitlam City Councillor (if we used the Doncaster pay scale) $56,557. I think we are doing pretty well.

“mayor’s chauffeur-driven car has also been axed”

Wow, the Mayor had his own chauffeur-driven car?! We don’t have a chauffeur to cut.

Besides, since I ride my bike to most meetings and events in the City, having a tandem bike would be ridiculous (except for May Day Parades of course).

I think before we start making judgment on the local politicians we should make sure we are comparing ‘apples to apples’. Given that the Mayor of Doncaster had a chauffer-driven car, I wonder what other perks he is receiving? It’s more likely that he’s just cutting a lot of the fat that doesn’t exist in Port Coquitlam in the first place.

Here are some other initiatives the Doncaster Mayor has undertaken:

• Stopped future funding for gay pride event (£3,000)
• Stopped council newspaper, Doncaster News
• Where possible, stopped funding for translation services and instead encourage people to learn English
• No mention of withdrawing from local gov’t association? That’s an option for us?
• What about twinning / sister cities? Not something we do, but something we’re considering.

Let me ask you - which events or items in Port Coquitlam would you cut?

This has been an interesting comparison

I look forward to reading your comments.