Toronto city councillors vote to give themselves $33,000 pay raises

By Peter Naus

Special to the Western Standard

Toronto city council has voted 15-7 on Friday in favour of increasing the salary for councillors by 24% from $137,537 to $170,588.

That's a pay bump of $33,051 a year per councillor.

With 24 councillors sitting on council in Toronto, taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $956,816.30, nearly a million dollars a year.

Here are some things you could buy with $33,051 a year:

• A brand new 2025 Honda Civic Sedan LX ($30,806) every year. 

• 13 MacBook Pros ($2,099×1.13×13=$30,834.31) every year. 

• 4 years of average university tuition ($7,360×4=$29,440) every year. 

• 74 bicycles ($390x1.13x74=$32,611.80) every year. 

• 22,000 boxes of Kraft Dinner ($1.50x22000=$33,000) every year. 

Even Mayor Olivia Chow expressed concern about the pay raises and the importance of using a third party to make decisions on salary increases, for both councillors and mayors.

Chow made $225,304.04 last year. Her salary is not impacted by the councillors’ increase.

Veteran Coun. James Pasternak put forward the motion in November to review councillor salaries after after Ontario Premier Doug Ford cut the size of city council from 47 to 25 seats.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation expressed outrage over the raises.

"This is a slap in the face to Toronto taxpayers," said the CTF's Federal Director Franco Terrazzano.

"Councillors should be taking pay cuts, not giving themselves raises. The city of Toronto needs to find savings so it can cut taxes and it should start by cutting politicians' pay."

"Councillors shouldn't be using taxpayers' money to pad their pockets with huge pay raises, especially as Torontonians struggle because of tariffs."