Getting hitched at St. John's City Hall? Prepare for $200 flat fee
Couples looking to get hitched at St. John's City Hall will be required to pay for the privilege, with council voting unanimously Tuesday to have the city collect a flat rate of $200 for each civil ceremony.
Until now, the $200 fee was in place, but it went to the mayor, who had the discretion of not charging it at all.
"It started to get a little out of hand," said Coun. Art Puddister.
"Basically people would pay money directly to the mayor with no deductions for Canada pension, income tax, and at the end of the year it wasn't even on his T4 so that was left to the mayor's own compensation."
With the change, Puddister said the money will go directly to the city to cover administrative costs.
"The mayor will not be compensated," said Puddister. "It will become part of his normal course of duties, nine to five, Monday to Friday."
Back in July, Puddister instigated the call for civil ceremony fees to go to through the city instead of Mayor Dennis O'Keefe, after a conflict-of-interest report recommended the mayor not be paid directly for officiating weddings.
Mayor not pleased
Following the vote on Tuesday, O'Keefe was not impressed with the decision.
"I was following the practice that goes back to the 1970s and continues today in cities like Mount Pearl and Corner Brook whereby the mayors would perform the weddings and collect a stipend," he said.
O'Keefe said he hasn't been charging for weddings conducted during regular business hours since the conflict-of-interest report was made public last year.
"What it means is that weddings that are now free will be charged $200," said O'Keefe.
"We've gone from having an accessible free service for the last year or so to now having a very expensive service, and one that won't be as accessible for many many people, and you can lay all that at the feet of Coun. Puddister."
By making it more expensive to get married, O'Keefe believes the new policy will hurt young couples.
"It's fine to have change and to formalize the process, I have no problem with that whatsoever," said O'Keefe.
"But what I have a problem with is implementing a policy that is going to negatively affect many many people by increasing the costs and not being as accessible."
Clarification : A prior version of this report had described the $200 fee as new. It had existed before, but was paid to the mayor, and had not always been collected.(Mar 22, 2017 11:13 AM)
