Calgary councillors considering salary freeze for 2025 and beyond

Calgary's municipal building is seen in this undated image. (Jordan Kanygin/CTV News)

Calgary city councillors appear set to discuss a potential salary freeze for 2025 and beyond at a meeting next week.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek announced she added an item to Tuesday’s meeting agenda proposing to freeze the salaries of all council members at 2024 levels this year.

“We are all aware of the economic pressures that our citizens currently face—increased living costs, from groceries to utilities, weigh heavily on families throughout our city,” Gondek said in a statement Friday.

“In light of these challenges, it is not appropriate for us, as elected officials, to accept any pay increases this year. Instead, we must lead by example, demonstrating fiscal responsibility and solidarity with the community we serve.”

Meanwhile, Ward 1 Councillor Sonya Sharpe, along with councillors Dan McLean, Terry Wong and Andre Chabot, announced another motion taking the pause further, freezing salaries at the 2024 rate through 2030.

Speaking Friday, Sharpe said the move would go hand-in-hand with other cost-saving measures.

“It shows that members of council want to show fiscal responsibility when we’re actually asking administration to look for efficiencies,” Sharpe said.

“So, if we’re asking them to look for efficiencies, this is an opportunity for us to also hold ourselves accountable and demonstrate that we also are looking for efficiencies on our own.”

Councillors just received another pay bump, marking the fourth consecutive year of salary increases.

As of Jan. 1, the mayor and councillors received a 3.07 per cent raise, bringing the total increase since 2022 to 9.5 per cent.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek's salary now sits at nearly $220,298, while councillors' salaries have risen to approximately $124,462 annually.

Sharpe said she wasn’t aware of the mayor’s plans for a freeze in 2025 until it was announced on Friday morning. Her motion is currently being reviewed by city clerks.

“If you sit in this horseshoe and talk about how Calgarians are in an affordability crisis, they can't afford to live here, we need housing, this is your opportunity to put your money where your mouth is,” Sharpe said.

With a municipal election scheduled for the fall, Sharpe argued that a locked-in salary through 2030 would provide transparency for the next city council on how much they would be paid for their whole term. Gondek said, however, she believes that decision should rest in the hands of the new council.

“I think it’s really important to focus on the year that we are in, and I think it’s really important to make sure that future councils are given the ability to make their own decisions,” the mayor said Friday.

“I don’t think any of my colleagues who are on council right now would have appreciated the council prior to ours making a decision like this for them. So, I have faith in the ability of elected officials to make decisions and the next council should be allowed to make theirs.”

Council compensation is determined by a citizen committee based on Alberta's average weekly earnings, a system established before the last election. This means salaries fluctuate with the province's economic performance.

With files from CTV News Calgary’s Tyson Fedor