The mayor of Montreal wants to freeze the salaries of elected officials for 2024, her office announced Thursday, after a significant increase in the envelope reserved for their remuneration.
The budget presented Wednesday increases this budget item from 16.8 million to 18.6 million, but Valérie Plante indicated Thursday that she will propose to the municipal council not to touch these additional funds.
Municipal regulations provide that in normal times, the salary of the mayor and municipal councilors automatically follows the cost of living.
“There will be no automatic indexation of salaries for the year 2024,” predicts Ms.me Plante, via his press secretary Marikym Gaudreault. “We want to remain consistent with the current economic context and the efforts required of both the public service and the population to tighten up the city’s finances. » This decision must be approved by the municipal council.
“It is therefore inaccurate to refer to an increase in the salary of elected officials of 11%,” she added.
The information was first published by Radio-Canada on Thursday.
For 2023, elected officials received an increase of 6.7%, or “the applicable indexation rate,” indicated the City of Montreal in a separate message. “In accordance with applicable regulations, the remuneration targeted by this indexation was adjusted on September 7, 2023, with retroactive effect from September 1er January 2023.”
The Plante administration presented a $7 billion budget on Wednesday, with spending growing by 3.4%. These will be financed by an average increase in municipal residential taxes of $227.