In the early days of COVID-19, a number of meetings of regularly scheduled County of Simcoe council and committees were cancelled. That meant per diems - money paid to councillors for attendance - were not paid out.
County councillors are currently paid a base rate of $9,860.47 annually, plus a per diem of $246.54 for each attended meeting.
During county council’s committee of the whole meeting this week, councillors considered a memo outlining the possibility of donating the unused funds to charities across the county, and looked at how such a donation could be distributed.
According to Trevor Wilcox, the county's general manager of corporate performance, the per diem amount could be paid out to councillors as a bonus, at which time they could determine where the funds would be going.
“It would then be up to the individual to determine if they would like to donate that amount to a charity,” he said.
If the amounts were held and not paid out, they would be held in surplus by the corporation and council could vote at the end of the year on how to spend the surplus.
“I like the idea that the decision would come to us. This is not a large expense to the county,” said Bradford Deputy Mayor James Leduc. “I would want to give my portion to (Bradford’s) food bank.”
Tiny Township Deputy Mayor Steffen Walma agreed with Leduc, adding there would be benefits to paying it out to councillors as a bonus rather than putting the money into the surplus.
“We’re in the middle of crisis now. The situation is fluid and I think we need to be fluid too,” said Walma, adding he would like to see councillors donate their money to their local food banks.
Wilcox said the total amount that has been saved through meeting cancellation is between $15,000 and $16,000.
Ramara Township Mayor Basil Clarke did not support giving the money directly to councillors to distribute.
“No offence to any of the councillors, but I don’t think we should be getting money we haven’t earned,” he said. “It should stay with the corporation. I would rather make a decision down the road at the end of the year. I don’t know what the future holds at this time.”
“I think with all the administrative work this would cause, it would defeat the purpose,” said Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin.
“I think a lot of us, in our own right, have already perhaps made donations to certain causes and stepped up to the plate. I think things should just stay as they are,” said Penetanguishene Deputy Mayor Anita Dubeau.
Councillors did not make a decision on a specific course of action at this time.
