Chatham-Kent’s next slate of councillors and mayor will be getting a bit of a pay bump for the 2026-2030 council term.
Councillors voted 9 to 6 in favour of the pay raise for councilors, with council receiving a fixed increase of $1,840 each year of the council term, with council voting 10 to 5 in favour of the mayor receiving that same increase beginning January 2027.
A Citizen Review Committee (CRC) presented their review at Monday’s council meeting, which they worked on from November 2025 to March 2026 and they selected a redistribution model that has no fiscal impact to tax payers.
“With the reduction of council by three seats, it creates an immediate savings in the base remuneration costs of $128,379,” said CRC member Wendy Vercauteren.
“The redistribution model of option D recommends the reinvestment of these existing funds back into the new 15 member council, again one mayor and 14 councillors, with fixed annual increases for each member of $1,840 annually.”
Vercauteren told council that Chatham-Kent is currently the costliest council among the identified peer municipalities, and with the changes being implemented next term by reducing council size from 18 to 15 CK would drop to fourth most expensive council.
Councillor Ryan Doyle asked for the remaining adjustments to be split, with council voting 10 to 5 in favour of increasing the annual health care benefits from $1,200 to $1,420, and 11 to 5 in favour of introducing a per diem meal allowance for municipal business.
Council also approved, by a 14 to 2 vote, the creation of a $3,500 training fund for councillors to use within the first two years of office. In addition, a 13 to 3 vote was made in favour of directing $19,000 in surplus savings toward a conference budget.
