{"id":9738,"date":"2026-02-02T14:50:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9738"},"modified":"2026-02-02T14:54:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:54:33","slug":"committee-eyes-sizable-pay-bumps-for-region-of-queens-mayor-councillors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2026\/02\/02\/committee-eyes-sizable-pay-bumps-for-region-of-queens-mayor-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"Committee eyes sizable pay bumps for Region of Queens mayor, councillors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian and his fellow councillors at a town hall session at the Liverpool Fire Hall in October. (Rick Conrad \/ File photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

A citizens committee is considering recommending significant raises for Queens County\u2019s mayor and councillors.<\/span><\/p>\n

The five-person group of volunteers appointed by Region of Queens council to review elected officials\u2019 remuneration had their second meeting on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

They agreed that the mayor\u2019s position should be considered a full-time job. They also agreed to recommend that it increase to $68,752 a year from the current $48,033.<\/span><\/p>\n

That reflects the current salary of the mayor in the West Hants Regional Municipality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors could see a bigger percentage bump. Committee members discussed how the annual pay for a regional councillor of $24,286 is less than minimum wage, based on a 30-hour work week.<\/span><\/p>\n

After considering the West Hants councillor rate of $34,376, they discussed raising the salary for a Queens councillor to $41,496.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Committee members split on that. Three supported the higher rate, while two others voted against it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kerry Morash said it would be difficult to justify that kind of increase to residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pamela Brennan said she supports higher pay for councillors, especially in the age of social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a time when elected officials are targets for abuse, targets for frustration,\u201d she said, adding that as an elected official, \u201cpotentially, you put your employable future at risk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said that a higher rate of pay could encourage more people to consider running for municipal council. District 6 was the only area that was uncontested in the 2024 election.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Committee chair Christopher Clarke, also a former mayor, said after the meeting that it\u2019s a balancing act.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou fall between two stools,\u201d he told QCCR.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, you want to compensate people who run for office properly. And they deserve that. \u2029On the other hand, you’ve got to be cognizant of the fact that Queens is one of the poorest municipalities in the province. You’ve got to make sure that whatever you do doesn’t add too great a burden on the taxpayer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s Tara Druzina said if the new salaries are recommended by the committee and approved by council, the cost would be the equivalent of an extra $24 a year per taxpayer.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that the committee has not yet decided on its final recommendations to council. It will meet again on Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. in council chambers. That meeting is open to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Committee members are set to discuss the rate of pay for deputy mayor, among other issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

While they focused on West Hants for much of their discussion Friday, they\u2019re also looking at other municipalities with a similar population or budget size.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo we’ve been using West Hants as our comparison,\u201d Clarke said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a reasonably fair comparison. Population-wise, it’s more, they have more councillors. \u2029We’ve also been cross-referencing to the Town of Bridgewater, for example, where we’re very comparable in size, number of councillors, budget. We’ve looked at the (Municipality of the County) of Annapolis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The committee also briefly discussed pension options for elected officials. Some Nova Scotia municipalities allow their council members to participate in a pension plan. But the committee did not reach a consensus on that issue in their Friday meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, pay for Region of Queens council and the mayor is adjusted after every election.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Any raises are calculated by using an amount equal to the cumulative percentage of the average salary increase of all region employees over the past four years or by the cumulative consumer price index over the same period, whichever is less.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The region has had the same policy since 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg\u2019s mayor is paid $59,377 a year, while councillors make $29,562. The deputy mayor gets $40,208. Members of council can also participate in a health and dental benefits package and be part of the provincial public service pension plan, which MODL belongs to as an employer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The committee is due to report back to Region of Queens council by Feb. 28. Councillors will have the final say on how they are compensated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Committee members are: Christopher Clarke, Velta Vikmanis, Tara Druzina, Kerry Morash and Pamela Brennan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two staff members are helping them with research and background. They are Holly McConnell, the region\u2019s director of people and culture, and Alex Wilson, the region\u2019s policy analyst and strategic initiatives co-ordinator.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A citizens committee is considering recommending significant raises for Queens County\u2019s mayor and councillors. The five-person group of volunteers appointed by Region of Queens council to review elected officials\u2019 remuneration had their second meeting on Friday. They agreed that the mayor\u2019s position should be considered a full-time job. They also agreed to recommend that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[3762,1225,3758,3759,3757,3089,2228,3760,3763,3761,1954,49,24,3644,2983,2153],"class_list":["post-9738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-alex-wilson","tag-christopher-clarke","tag-council-pay","tag-council-remuneration","tag-councillor-compensation","tag-holly-mcconnell","tag-kerry-morash","tag-mayor-salary","tag-municipal-salaries","tag-pamela-brennan","tag-pay","tag-queens-county","tag-region-of-queens","tag-salaries","tag-tara-druzina","tag-velta-vikmanis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9741,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9738\/revisions\/9741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}