Nenshi “totally fine” with recommended pay cut from citizen committee

Calgary’s mayor says he wouldn’t mind if his wallet took a hit.

“I’m totally fine with it,” Naheed Nenshi said Thursday following a citizen committee report recommending he take a six per cent cut.

It works out to just over $12,000 and would bring his annual salary down to just over $200,000 total.

“I have been saying for some years that the previous citizen committee I thought had pegged the mayor’s salary a bit too high, but I also wanted to respect that it’s a volunteer committee and councillors shouldn’t set their own salaries up or down,” he said.

Nenshi has been giving 10 per cent of his salary to charity and said that would continue if he were to take such a cut.

The five-person volunteer committee is not recommending councillors take a cut, with current salaries at $113,416 per year and Nenshi said he’s fine with that as well.

However, he did take issue with one of the other suggestions, which is that council should vote every year to accept or decline pay changes.

Currently, the committee makes recommendations for the next council, which Nenshi said makes sense.

“Council always retains the right to change it if they have a necessary reason,” Nenshi said, citing examples like taking no pay increases during economic downturns. “It ends up then being political and it undermines the work of the citizen volunteer committee in my opinion.”

“I don’t think politicians should be setting their own salaries, except in extraordinary circumstances.”