The mayor of Gore, a small municipality of barely 2,277 inhabitants, received no less than $101,343 in 2022.
“It’s like one person with two jobs,” says Mayor Scott Pearce to justify his six-figure salary.
In addition to being mayor, he has also been prefect of the MRC d’Argenteuil since 2014. He is also president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and sits on the Fédération québécoise des municipalities.
Scott Pearce says he works 16 hours a day.
“If you are a mayor of a small municipality and you are involved like me, that doesn’t leave time for other things,” he notes.
In his municipality, “everyone has [son] telephone number,” adds the mayor in office since 2005.
As surprising as it may seem, he believes he lost money becoming mayor, despite all the hard work he does.
“I’m losing money because I had a company and it hasn’t grown since I’ve been mayor,” he admits.
Pronounced increase
In 2021, Mr. Pearce received $40,000 less. His base salary has also increased by 50%.
“I am accountable to everyone at home,” he says.
The mayor assures that this increase was to bring it back to the level of the remuneration published in the study by the Union of Municipalities of Quebec on the salaries of elected officials.
“The job was to regularize,” assures Scott Pearce.