Port Hawkesbury’s Mayor says because of a recent federal tax change, this year’s budget includes an increase in councilor stipends.
Brenda Chisholm-Beaton says that’s because the federal government removed a tax exemption on some councilor income earlier this year.
She says the main goal of the increase is to recover net income, so councilors are taking home the same amount of money they were before the federal tax change.
Chisholm-Beaton says they made the change after considering the advice of provincial and national municipality associations, and says the decision falls in line with most other municipalities.
She says the total increase in councilor stipends is about 20 per cent.
