Longueuil councillor receives higher salary than mayor
An elected official in Longueuil was being paid more money than his leader, the mayor.
Coun. Jonathan Tabarah took home $202,314 last year, compared to Mayor Catherine Fournier, who received $188,759, according to a response to an access-to-information request by Radio-Canada. Adjustments have been made so that he will earn less than her this year.
"It seems quite special to me," said Danielle Pilette. a professor at UQAM specializing in municipal finance and management. "The mayor has more institutional responsibilities."
Tabarah, 28, earned so much money in 2022 thanks to accumulating mandates in Longueuil. The mandates earned him additional compensation which added to his base salary.
Fournier has a higher base salary than him, $90,954 but she has fewer additional mandates than Tabarah.
She sits on the Commission métropolitaine de Montréal ($45,000), the Agence régionale de transport métropolitain ($19,751) and the agglomeration council ($15,508), in addition to receiving an expense allowance of $17,546.
A result of the mayor's salary cut
When she was elected in 2021, Catherine Fournier imposed a salary reduction of $65,000. She was aware that the previous mayor, Sylvie Parent, had been widely criticized because she earned more than all the other mayors in Quebec, and even more than Premier François Legault.
However, this drop in the mayor's salary did not apply to the other elected officials of Longueuil.
In Montreal, no elected official can earn more than the mayor's salary ($196,000), according to Radio-Canada. The cap is also $10,000 less than Valérie Plante's salary.
Tabarah limits his mandates to lower salary
Tabarah referred questions from Radio-Canada to a spokesperson.
Camille Desrosiers-Lafferière, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, said a decision to reduce Tabarah's salary was made last year, following a review of the remuneration of elected officials.
"Jonathan has applied to no longer receive his acting mayor's salary [from May 29, 2022]. Also, at the end of the year, he gave up his position as vice-president of the [Montreal Metropolitan Community] CMM housing commission," she said.
In 2023, he will lose the $13,187 from his CMM seat. He will also not receive the $35,600 that was to be awarded to the acting mayor. This total decrease of $48,000 will be more than enough to lower Jonathan's salary below that of the mayor, Desrosiers-Lafferière said.
Better paid than a minister
If he had not given up his salary as acting mayor during the year, Tabarah would have earned $220,530, which would have made him, potentially, the highest paid elected municipal official in Quebec.
By way of comparison, the premier of Quebec earns $208,200, a minister, $177,732, and a deputy, $101,561.
Pilette said taking a pay cut was the "the right thing to do."
"It is important that the remuneration remains fair compared to the other elected officials," Pilette said. "A municipal councillor who is not mayor, who has twice the remuneration of an MNA, that seems very high to me."
The salary of elected officials is a recurring debate in Quebec. The mayors of Laval, Repentigny and Varennes had pledged to lower their pay after the 2021 election.
Last week, an independent committee recommended increasing the salaries of MNAs by 21 per cent.
Last year, the salary of $300,000 of the police chief of the agglomeration of Longueuil also raised eyebrows.
The salaries of elected officials in Longueuil represents an annual budget of just over two million dollars.
