Photo: Times Colonist

Langford Mayor Stew Young

Langford Mayor Stew Young’s salary will double and his councillors’ pay will increase by more than 55 per cent under a new remuneration policy endorsed by councillors.

The mayor’s annual salary will increase to $75,863 from $37,558 while annual remuneration for councillors will increase to $27,410 from $17,661 retroactive to Jan. 1.

At Young’s request, the policy states the mayor’s increase can be phased in over a period of between two and five years.

“I don’t like it,” Young said of the size of increase. “They were going to do it all in one year, and I said, ‘That will not happen.’”

Young said he will take his increase over five years.

Langford councillors have not had a raise in 13 years and their salaries have fallen way behind other municipalities of similar size — a situation exacerbated by the municipality’s rapid growth, says a staff report.

“There’s a lot of catching up to do,” said Coun. Lillian Szpak.

The new council remuneration rates represent the low end of the average of council salaries of similar-sized communities in the province,” Szpak said.

“We are the lowest on average. So we’re very mindful of our taxpayer. We’re very mindful of making sure that we are keeping costs low for our community.”

“On one hand it’s hard for councils to say we’re going to be giving ourselves a raise but you’re the only people that can because you’re the decision makers and you have to look to the future as well. And you don’t want to be having a great big lump sum jump. This is where we’ve ended up because we’ve left it all this time,” Szpak said.

Given Langford’s population of 39,368, its councillors are being paid 45 cents per capita.