Atkinson’s wage freeze withdrawn: Issue expected at budget deliberations

Coun. Cheryl Ring said she wouldn’t support the motion because she didn’t want to have to commit to a set amount before budget deliberations.

“If we decide that down the road that we want to do this, that we need to do this, we could bring a motion forward then, but I just don’t believe that I want to commit to this right now and I honestly don’t think that it’s going to be a big bargaining chip for our negotiations,” she said.

Coun. Darren Whitehead said he agreed with the idea of tightening the city’s belt, but that the employees deserved some kind of increase.

“I’m in favour of something like cost of living. I know we have to tighten our belts and out-of-scope is where we have to start so we can bring in a little tax increase, not a big one… but I’m not in favour of zero,” he said.

Atkinson lets council decide on increase limit

After initial discussion, Atkinson changed his motion from a wage freeze to a limit of whatever council wanted to set, but debate continued to rage.

“It’s up to council to decide and I think we have to set an example,” said Atkinson and suggested possibly tying it to a cost of living increase. “We have to get dollars somewhere and the tax burden on our citizens can only be so high.”

Coun. Greg Dionne said his major concern was that the fire department and the police service would come back with large increases and that would put pressure to increase city employee wages in a similar manner.

Since the tradition had been to give out-of-scope employees the same increase, he said that was a concern.

“I do believe council should set what the rate should be. I disagree with the old philosophy (that tied increases to union negotiations),” said Dionne.

Coun. Martin Ring said that wasn’t good enough, since it was almost impossible to define what the index should be.

“Fuel costs are going through the roof, we’re hearing about food costs that are going to be increasing so what is our cost of living going to be at?” said Ring.

“We’re talking about something that we don’t know what the number is and I’m reluctant to vote on that.”

Coun. Charlene Miller said a freeze was a good idea, citing the high wages managers had received.

“I had read in the Herald that all administration staff make $100,000/year, or whatever it is, and I just think that it’s kind of ironic that if they can’t budget their money maybe they should take classes,” she said.

Motion gets withdrawn

After more debate, Dionne eventually moved that the motion be brought up at the budget deliberations, but citing disagreement over the numbers, Atkinson eventually withdrew his motion entirely.

“There seems to be more parameters and more discussion ensuing, which is a good thing, therefore if that’s the case, I’m going to withdraw my motion and you can discuss it all you want at budget,” he said. He added that a zero per cent would also be bad for the city in general.

“Do we want to have the best employees to do the best services here in the City of Prince Albert? If we’re going to come in at zero per cent, we’re going to start losing them.”

Budget deliberations are set for Friday and Saturday. Councillors will be discussing all issues related to the city’s budget including wages for out-of-scope employees.

adesouza@panow.com

by Andrew de Souza

Atkinson’s wage freeze withdrawn: Issue expected at budget deliberations

Atkinson lets council decide on increase limit

Motion gets withdrawn

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