TNRD: Asking for ANY increase this year is completely unjustified

An editorial today in the Kamloops Daily News alerted me to something I somehow missed last week.

The elected members of the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) awarded themselves a 1.7% wage increase.  Now I know that doesn’t sound like a lot … but that’s ON TOP OF A 40% INCREASE they felt justified in giving themselves just a year ago,

So in actual fact --- TNRD board members have gone to the taxpayers of the Thompson Nicola region (which includes the City of Kamloops), and not asked for, but simply taken, a wage increase of 41.7%.

Here is a bit of the editorial from the Kamloops Daily News …

… last year they were so anxious to make certain they were well equipped for the challenges ahead that they voted themselves a 40-per-cent increase.

The 1.7 per cent approved for the current year is so miserly that our brains are agog, as if smart meters had been scrambling our cognitive abilities.  But no, there it is, 1.7 per cent. We’re speechless, almost.

…. surely, once a fair level has been found for their stipends, a reasonable cost-of-living adjustment each year should be enough to remove any anxiety about keeping up with the Gateses and the Buffets.

Just one ever so slight niggle remains troublesome — that 40 per cent, and all the previous generosity to themselves on pay, travel expenses and meeting stipends ….

A raise for elected members of the TNRD is absurd, given restraint demanded of government employees -- and others in the private sector -- who have seen little, or no, wage increases for years.

There is NO WAY for the elected members of the TNRD to justify a 41.7% increase in salary in two years

On March 16, 2011 Premier Christy Clark announced British Columbia’s minimum wage was going to increase in three stages to $10.25 by May 1, 2012 --- even that was only a 28% increase.  And a portion of the taxes from those who received that wage increase will now be going to pay for those TNRD elected reps who gave themselves a 41.7% wage increase.

On November 8, 2011 BC Stats reported that consumer prices in British Columbia rose 1.7% between December 2010 and December 2011 --- and yet those elected to the board of the TNRD felt justified to give themselves a 41.7% increase.

And Stats Canada reported that in BC, wages increased 2.7% from January of last year, to January of this year.

The 40% increase they gave themselves last year was wrong --- asking for ANY increase this year is completely unjustified.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.