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Consultant urges 37 per cent pay raise for Orangeville council

October 16, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

A consultant hired by the town recommends a pay raise for Orangeville’s elected officials.

Marianne Love of Marianne Consulting said the comparative group used in the compensation study reflected Orangeville’s size and scope of service.

She recommended that a pay increase, effective the start of the new council term following the October 2026 municipal election, be along the lines of $80,154 for the mayor, $48,131 for the deputy mayor, and $43,755 for councillors.

Council voted to accept the consultant’s report but not to enact pay raises in phases.

Currently, Mayor Lisa Post is paid the base amount of $59,277 annually. Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor’s base pay is $35,284 annually. And the seven councillors each pick up a base yearly pay of $31,897.

That’s excluding such compensation as provided laptops, $180 a month for home office, internet, and cellphone costs. And elected officials are paid 72 cents per kilometre for the first 5,000 kilometres of council-related travel in  personal vehicles.

There are no additional per diem payments for meetings provided.

“So, in other words, the base pay rates are sort of an all-in payment for various meetings of council,” Love said during council’s Oct. 14 meeting.

Other than increases to keep pace with the cost of living and an adjustment to offset the loss of a previous one-third tax exemption, Orangeville’s councillors haven’t gotten a bump in pay in the last 15 years.

The one-third exemption refers to the amount of compensation that had been exempt from taxation for provincial and municipal elected officials. The federal government canned that exemption effective 2019. So base pay rates were adjusted to compensate for that loss.

Council pay was last looked at in 2022, but other than the cost of living, no adjustments were made to council’s base pay.

Orangeville tasked an outside consultant with revisiting council’s pay rates compared to neighbouring municipalities of relative population.

“The 2025 base pay remuneration for all positions is low to the defined pay market,” Love said.

That defined pay market is the 60th percentile of the comparison group.

Councillor Andy Macintosh, a seven-year veteran of municipal politics, said he has no issue with council’s pay increasing. The workload merits a raise, quite simply. But he recommends the increase be spread out over the four years of the next term.

“It would make it easier and more fiscally responsible, I feel,” he said.

“Certainly, that can be done,” Love said. “It’s really the wish of council. It’s a council decision. The rest is math.”

Coun. Joe Andrews said council members serve because of a community commitment and not for money. The hours elected officials put into their roles are less than minimum wage, he said.

Taxpayers may be dismayed at the idea of a 37.5 per cent pay raise for council. But the decision to look at remuneration was deferred repeatedly, he said.

“Here we are in a situation where, if you want quality people that are going to be making decisions on behalf of this municipality, you want to have people that in fact know what they’re doing because they have the experience to make some hard decisions,” Andrews said. “You also have to compensate them within reason.”

He added that councillors do their duties to make a difference in their communities.

“But there also comes a point in time where you have to pay for the talent that you have,” Andrews said.

Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor said it’s best to simply approve the consultant’s report as opposed to debating nickels and dimes and what anybody individual feels a salary should be.

“It’s a dangerous, slippery slope,” he said. “We are given a recommendation by somebody who does this all over the province. We should trust that recommendation and we should just be done with this and not go down a road that is rocky and whatnot.”

However, he said the mayor’s salary is “an absolute travesty.” He’s worked on councils with two mayors, and they put forth a tremendous effort in the role.

“I will not be putting my name forward for mayor,” Taylor said.

Staff will bring a draft compensation proposal to council at a later date.

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