Toronto city councillors vote to give themselves a roughly $33K pay raise

Toronto city councillors have voted to give themselves a staff-recommended pay raise of nearly 25 per cent.

At their meeting on Thursday, councillors voted 15-8 with three abstentions to increase their current base salary from $137,537.40 to $170,588.60, a roughly $33,000 bump that would cost the city around $957,000 in salaries and benefits this year.

The raise, the first pay increase for councillors since 2006 outside adjustments for inflation, follows a staff report from the city's chief people officer Mary Madigan-Lee this year.

Mayor Olivia Chow, whose salary won't be affected by the council vote, said earlier this week that she was not in favour of an increase.

"It is too steep," she told reporters on Tuesday. "These are hard economic times for everyone, and it's also uncertain times, uncertain because of the Trump tariff."

The staff report had said the increase is justified based on "the unique demands placed on city councillors," noting that Toronto councillors oversee Canada's largest municipal budget, including the country's largest shelter and transit systems, and a "substantial" housing portfolio.

Despite that, Toronto councillors currently earn less than roughly 40 per cent of their colleagues in other municipalities reviewed for the report.

The increase will bring Toronto council pay into the 75th percentile of elected officials in comparable municipalities, the report said. In other words, Toronto councillors would be paid more than three-quarters of municipal representatives in similar cities.

Toronto councillors have the lowest compensation per constituent ($1.08) in that group, the report found. Toronto is also the only one of those municipalities that does not pay additional compensation for appointments to boards of service agencies.

Councillors in Markham — which has 353,000 residents compared to about 3.1 million in Toronto — had the highest compensation per constituent ($5.24), the report found, with annual salaries of about $161,000. Mississauga councillors, who represent just under 800,000 people, have the highest base salaries of the review group, earning about $173,000 in 2024.

Of the Ontario municipalities reviewed for the report, only councillors in Ottawa had a lower base salary than those in Toronto.

Coun. Stephen Holyday, who represents Etobicoke Centre, said he opposed the pay increase because he doesn't think it's appropriate.

"I just believe that, if we do this, it further erodes people's confidence in government. And I don't think we should do it," Holyday said.

Coun. Chris Moise, who represents Toronto Centre, said he supports the pay raise.