Councillors call for municipal wage freeze
Posted Mar 30, 2010 04:37:57 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A wage freeze may be a part of city hall’s effort to deal with a $30 million budget shortfall.
A couple of councillors are calling for a freeze on the salaries of the mayor, councillors and senior HRM staff.
“I think that council really understands we’re in the single-biggest budget crisis since amalgamation,” says South End Councillor Sue Uteck. “Council has to wrap their head around that.”
The budget shortfall also has council discussing a number of options including tax increases and service cuts. Mayor Peter Kelly says a wage freeze can’t be ruled out.
“We can’t leave any stone unturned, but also we have to look long range, it can’t just be a quick hit,” says Kelly. “We need to look long range in terms of looking at opportunities to reduce the overall staffing of HRM.”
He’d like to see 300 fewer city employees in the next three or four years and hopes it can be done through early retirements rather than layoffs.
