Thunder Bay city council approves substantial pay hikes

Welcome signage for Thunder Bay, Ont., is shown in this undated photo. (File photo/City of Thunder Bay)

Sitting on Thunder Bay city council will become significantly more lucrative over the next several years.

In a 7-3 vote Tuesday evening, council approved a plan for pay hikes of nine per cent a year for up to eight years, effective Jan. 1, 2027.

The increases are set to continue until salaries reach a benchmark pegged to council remuneration in eight other municipalities, which city staff estimate will take until 2032 for the mayor and 2033 for councillors.

For councillors, that would mean an increase of 88 per cent — from $33,183 in 2025 to $62,298 in 2033. For the mayor, it would result in a 72 per cent increase — from $100,941 in 2025 to $173,859 in 2033.

Couns. Mark Bentz, Brian Hamilton, Andrew Foulds, Albert Aiello, Greg Johnsen, Dominic Pasqualino, and Mayor Ken Boshcoff voted for the increase, while Couns. Michael Zussino, Trevor Giertuga, and Kasey Etreni voted against.

In a separate vote, council approved a 2.7 per cent retroactive pay increase effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Zussino was the only member to oppose that decision.

Couns. Kristen Oliver, Shelby Ch’ng, and Rajni Agarwal were absent from the meeting.

The nine per cent boost will give over $3,000 more to councillors and over $9,000 to the mayor in 2027. That number would increase each year as the raises compound.

All the council members at the meeting said they felt nine per cent would be hard for the public to get behind, except for Boshcoff, who said “I don’t think anybody is going to get any heat on this whatsoever.”

“Most people are quite aware that most of our salary goes to donations back into the community for various causes,” said Boshcoff.

“Whether it’s a daily raffle ticket for a cause, but we’re always there. So, please don’t worry.”

The new plan would see council salaries pegged to the median pay of eight comparator municipalities: Barrie, Cambridge, Chatham-Kent, Greater Sudbury, Guelph, Kingston, Sault Ste. Marie, and the County of Simcoe.

Karie Ortgiese, the city’s director of human resources, presented the results of a compensation market review by ML Consulting which compared council’s existing pay rate to the other communities.

Currently, Thunder Bay councillors make 35 per cent less than the market median of $50,689, while the mayor makes 28 per cent less than the market median of $139,618, according to the report.

It is estimated that it will take up to eight years to reach the target market position, with alignment anticipated in 2032 for the mayor, and 2033 for councillors,” the authors concluded.

Once that benchmark is reached, council’s pay will continue to be pegged to the median salaries of the eight comparator municipalities.

Etreni objected to the nine per cent annual increases, saying council first needs to earn the public’s trust.

“Right now, I think before we give ourselves a raise, recognizing I appreciate the 2.7 per cent, but it’s the nine per cent for eight years that really is my tipping point. Before we give ourselves a raise, I think we need to give our residents a reason to believe in us again. The potholes are bad. For that reason, I can’t accept the recommendation as presented,” she said.

The council vote would not be for a pay increase for themselves, Giertuga stated, because there would be no guarantee that any of the councillors would be re-elected later this year.

Four members of council have said they won’t be running for reelection.

Nevertheless, the remuneration hike did not sit well with Giertuga, as he moved for separate votes to be held on this year’s remuneration and next year’s.

Hamilton reiterated Etreni’s point that “this is an honorarium, not a salary.”

He said the broader public will accept the pay bump to bring council’s compensation in line with the other municipalities.

“The honour is important, and the honour of sitting in this chair, and sometimes, you know, as councillors, we’re kind of the poster children for a crumbling society, and we have to wear that as well,” Hamilton said.

“I don’t think what’s being suggested is anything over and above. It’s nestling us at the 50th percentile. I want to focus on the policy, less on the percentage, less on the dollar amounts and I think the public would get behind that,” he added.

Bentz said nine per cent doesn’t represent a huge amount, but recognized the public might not see it that way.

“It’s very easy to attack any increase in what you pay politicians because politicians, quite frankly, are at the bottom of the barrel in our society right now. One of the reasons is we don’t maybe attract good people and we make bad decisions. We have to own up to that,” he said.

Bentz asked City Clerk Krista Power, if there was any evidence to suggest that increasing the remuneration would attract people with more credentials to run for council.

Power said when surveying members of council on why they decided to run, they said payment was low on the list, but surveys of individuals who decide not to run have identified pay as a barrier.

Bentz said that in the end, the recommendation was a step in the right direction.

Foulds said a pay increase might knock down some barriers for people who might want to run for office, an outcome he supports.

He added that approving the recommendation forward would be doing a service for future councils who, in approximately eight years, would receive the benefit of being compensated at the median.

“We’re not buying private jets for ourselves. We are not building ballrooms with bunkers underneath here. We’re asking to be the 50th percentile, and councillor Giertuga, to your point, not for us. Actually, not even for the next term of council. This will take two terms of council. We are actually paying it forward, two terms,” he said.

This report was first published under the Local Journalism Initiative on April 24, 2026.

Clint Fleury, Local Journalism Initiative reporter