Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says he won’t back pay raises for city councillors as some members of council mull bringing forward a motion to give them a significant salary increase. CTV News Ottawa has learned councillors are considering several options for pay raises, where proposals could go up as high as over $18,000, from $119,654 currently to $138,000 – a 15 per cent increase. Speaking in a media availability following the meeting, Sutcliffe said that while he respects the hard work of councillors, it would not be appropriate to consider a pay raise at this time. “I think we need to take a look around at what’s going on in the community right now. There’s an affordability crisis, there’s the prospect of significant federal job reductions, there are lineups at food banks,” Sutcliffe said. “I hear all the time from my colleagues on city council and from members of the community that they want to see more resources being invested in critical areas to support the most vulnerable.” Sutcliffe added that considerations about a pay raise could impact ongoing salary negotiations with public sector unions representing city staff. “I think it would be imposing a significant burden on the staff who are negotiating those contracts with those unions if we were to introduce for ourselves a larger than cost of living increase for our salaries,” he said. Ottawa’s 24 city councillors each earned $119,490 in 2024 and $111,111 in 2023. Elected officials received a 2.5 per cent raise in each year of the three-year collective agreement for 2023, 2024 and 2025, tied to raises for non-unionized managers. In January, councillors received a report conducted by consulting firm MNP that found the current renumeration rates for elected officials in Ottawa aligned with the median market rate. “Therefore, data-driven results across comparators’ research do not indicate that a salary increase is needed presently,” the report said. Toronto councillors voted in March to increase their salaries by 24 per cent from $137,537 to $170,588. The Ford government unfroze Ontario MPP salaries held at 116,500 since 2009 last spring. MPPs saw a nearly $41,000 raise to a total of $157,350. Coun. Riley Brockington tells CTV News Ottawa he believes an independent assessment should be done to come up with the right figure. Brockington says outside of inflationary increases, councillors have not had an in-depth review on pay raises for members in over two decades. “I’ve met with the mayor on a number of occasions. I floated six, seven different options for us to consider, while talking about the pros and cons of each,” he said. “I just want something that is reasonable, that is backed up by an independent study.” Brockington says there are different opinions on council for the process moving forward. “The timing is also a concern but at the end of the day, what we really need is a process that council agrees with so that this does not come up every term of office for city councillors and council as a whole to deal with,” he said. No motion on councillor pay was put forward at Wednesday’s city council meeting and it’s unclear if or when one will be. with files from CTV News Ottawa’s Josh Pringle
