Mayor Morgan seeks substantial raises for deputy mayor and budget chair

Less than two years after council last adjusted their compensation policy, two senior political positions at city hall might be getting raises.

This year, all 14 city councillors are slated to earn $65,137 in base pay, including Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis and Budget Chair Elizabeth Peloza.

However, Mayor Josh Morgan is urging council to award a 12 per cent raise to the deputy mayor position ($8,142) and a 10 per cent raise ($6,514) to the budget chair position until a broader review of council compensation is completed at city hall.

“It is a significant amount of work,” explained Morgan. “If you want people to do that work, [and] you want them to do it well, you need to properly compensate them.”

Lewis said the growing workload for civic politicians demands their full-time attention.

“We can’t continue to treat this as sort of a part-time, off the side of your desk [role],” Lewis told CTV News. “It has to be peoples’ full-time focus.”

Meanwhile, Peloza believes her role deserves the same raise as the deputy mayor.

“I do,” she acknowledged. “I’m interested to know what makes one [role] different than the other, recognizing that we have a multi-year budget going before [council].”

She also works closely with city staff and municipally funded boards on annual budget updates.

The mayor adamantly denies that the difference represents a gender-based salary gap.

“The salaries are based on the positions, not the individuals currently in them,” Morgan said. “[It] is related to the workload associated with those positions. Having done both of those jobs, I can tell you the work of deputy mayor is more than the work of budget chair.”

In his motion, the mayor said he will also be increasing the responsibilities of each role.

The deputy mayor position will start chairing the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee and the Governance Working Group (GWG).

The budget chair will have the added duty of chairing the Audit Committee.

In the past, council has appointed an arms-length Compensation Task Force made up of independent Londoners before enacting significant changes to their pay.

“Whenever we talk about ourselves, it’s always politicized,” said Peloza. “We always hear from the community, ‘what are you doing that justifies this?’ A lot of the work done isn’t in the public realm or seen on the news.”

The mayor’s motion describes the raises as “interim compensation measures” until council’s Governance Working Group considers permanent compensation changes for the 2026-2030 council term.

“The Governance Working Group will actually be looking this year at having an independent group take some of our recommendations, review them, and then report back,” explained Lewis, who chairs GWG.

The mayor said that a compensation review will include public engagement, “I’m asking for the work that’s being done, and has been done, to be properly compensated for this term of council while that review is conducted.”

The Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee will consider the mayor’s motion on Jan. 16.