It turns out that Grey Highlands council is generally satisfied with its current compensation system for members of council.
Although it took three separate debates at three different meetings, in the end council made few changes to its compensation system.
Elected members of council will continue to receive a base salary for meetings and events that are considered a mandatory part of the job in the policy. Councillors will also be eligible for additional meeting pay above the base pay for specific meetings that the policy does not consider mandatory. Councillors are also eligible to claim mileage for all meetings and events they attend.
The final discussion/debate on the matter occurred at a committee of the whole meeting on March 25. The topic had come to two previous council meetings and generated significant discussion at both meetings, which led to the matter being referred to a committee of the whole meeting. The policy will not impact the current council and will begin with the term of the new council that will be elected later this year.
Initially, staff had recommended that council switch to a full salary model that would eliminate any meeting pay. However, at the previous two meetings, council was not satisfied with that recommendation and preferred for the current hybrid system to continue.
The debate around the council table was about how to define the extra meetings that would be eligible for additional meeting pay.
The March 25 committee of the whole session stretched to close to 90 minutes, with members of council expressing different ideas about what should be considered an additional meeting. The main point of contention during a portion of the meeting was about town halls, open houses, public meetings and information sessions. The proposed compensation policy classed those types of meetings as eligible for additional meeting pay.
“I do wonder if some of those should be part of the base pay,” said Coun. Nadia Dubyk.
Coun. Joel Loughead said the compensation policy has been tricky to navigate at times.
“It’s been confusing for me filling out my timesheet,” said Loughead.
Mayor Paul McQueen said council needed to think of candidates who are interested in running for council in the future. He said it was important for potential future candidates to have a clear understanding of how they would be compensated for their council work.
“I think we want to be careful,” said McQueen. “I think we have to have a balance.”
Dubyk also noted that it would be a challenge for council to come up with a specific definition for every kind of meeting they are asked to attend.
“It’s so difficult to make rules for every single example. We don’t want to make this unwieldy,” said Dubyk.
McQueen also noted that compensation for additional meetings outside those considered mandatory continues to be the choice of the individual member of council. As mayor, McQueen is responsible for approving council timesheets and he said he hasn’t encountered any issues.
“I don’t see any abuse,” he said. “Not everybody puts in (for additional meetings). It’s an option. I think we’re spending a lot of time on this.”
Ultimately, council chose to leave the compensation policy unchanged. An amendment to the resolution was approved to have staff come back to the next meeting on April 15 with a full list of meetings that would be considered eligible for additional meeting pay for educational purposes.
At the suggestion of Loughead, council also requested that staff work on a system that would categorize the type of meeting when it is placed in the schedule calendars for members of council.
Loughead said such a system would eliminate the guesswork for members of council and would make the type of meeting “quite clear” and the option to include the meeting on their timesheet would continue.
“We can still decide if we want to claim the pay. It’s up to us,” he said. “Maybe this is more work than it’s worth, but it feels like it would offer clarity.”
Anna McCarthy, the municipality’s director of finance/treasurer, said such a scheduling system should be achievable.
“We can take a stab at it. It wouldn’t be too hard,” she said.
By Chris Fell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Mar 25, 2026 at 16:00
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