New Westminster councillor calls for salary cap on Metro Vancouver mayors

A New Westminster city councillor is advocating for a salary cap on local politicians, some of them making more in income than B.C. cabinet ministers.

According to Coun. Daniel Fontaine, many mayors in the region earned over $200,000 in 2024, with four surpassing $300,000.

Those elected politicians include Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley, Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, Delta Mayor George V. Harvie, and Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie.

Brodie is at the top of the income ranking, with a total remuneration of $379,974.00, based on Fontaine’s calculations. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s combined income amounts to $220,078.

Fontaine tells 1130 NewsRadio that he started compiling “how much elected officials were making in the Metro Vancouver region” after he realized that information was not centrally available.

These compensations include the mayors’ base salaries and additional payments from various regional bodies, such as Metro Vancouver, TransLink, and the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority. These additional payments stem from the responsibilities the mayors play in multiple committees of those regional bodies.

Fontaine is urging Premier David Eby to implement salary caps.

“I have been publicly encouraging the B.C. premier, the B.C. cabinet, as well as Metro Vancouver, to look at implementing these salary caps,” Fontaine said in an interview with 1130 NewsRadio.

Fontaine echoes a report by an independent governance review from accounting firm Deloitte, which recommends a salary cap for Metro Vancouver elected politicians.

B.C. cabinet ministers make $180,000 annually

In detail, the recommendation says that elected officials in Metro Vancouver should not make more in income than a B.C. cabinet minister, whose salaries are approximately $180,000 annually.

The report, which was issued to the Metro Vancouver Regional District earlier this year, states that if a cap on income remuneration were imposed, taxpayers in the metro region would save about $1.5 million last year.

“What is interesting is that you do not need provincial legislation to implement the cap,” Fontaine explains. “It’s something that Metro Vancouver could impose on itself, because it does control how much it pays out to elected officials.”

The Metro Vancouver Regional District says Fontaine’s claim that it could impose caps itself is false.

The district says it can only address compensation to Metro Vancouver Board members, but not total salaries that might include compensation from other organizations or municipalities.  

“That is why the report from the Metro Vancouver Board Governance Review made the recommendation of a salary cap specifically to the province,” said a statement by a spokesperson Thursday.

It says Metro Vancouver Board remuneration is being addressed through the independent Board Governance Review.

With files from Sonia Aslam.