Vancouver City Council is mulling over giving themselves a bunch of new benefits and the Parks Board a raise. From Metro News:

Mayor Gregor Robertson called for the compensation review almost exactly a year ago on the first day of his third term. The review found that 100 per cent of park board commissioners and 75 per cent of councillors believe their current base salaries ($8,000 and $67,994 respectively) are inadequate.

Well, boo hoo. Bear in mind, most of these councillors also collect Metro Vancouver and other committee meeting fees.

Naturally, the City’s committee of handpicked friends-of-the-mayor sided with the poor, underpaid politician, manufacturing the usual nonsense about how they’re underpaid compared to “competitor cities.” Horse hockey, of course – there is no competitive market for city councillors. If Gregor Robertson thinks there is, then I encourage him to run for mayor in Portland or Seattle or Burnaby.

The full City report is HERE. But one graph stood out.

Who do you think has received the biggest raises in the City of Vancouver since 1996? No, not the firefighters. No, not CUPE. Not exempt/management employees. It’s the politicians:

As I wrote earlier this year:

Here's the truth about politician pay. Some are grossly overpaid for the work they do, while some are terribly underpaid. But that distinction is very much in the eye of the beholder…

Politicians shouldn't be raising their own pay. If a raise is necessary, it should be put in place for the next mayor and council, not the current one -- giving voters a chance to speak on the issue.

Further, politicians shouldn't double dip. A mayor or council salary should be all they get; there should be no top-up for regional roles. They are only on regional bodies because we elect them locally. There's only one taxpayer -- and we pay them already for their work.

Lastly, no evidence exists to prove that paying more attracts better candidates to public life. In fact, Rod Sykes, the former mayor of Calgary, argues that his city got better candidates when they paid less.