Administrative staff presented Kneehill County council members with a draft policy to reduce council remunerations to aid the county in saving money amid financial hardships, which came as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, during the Tuesday, February 23 regular Kneehill County council meeting.
Discussion first began in December 2020 and was brought back to council during the Tuesday, January 26 council meeting where council voted in favour of administration drafting a new remuneration policy.
“I like how it’s all brought back into one policy, especially Schedule A showing a decrease of 15 per cent roughly,” said Councillor Debbie Penner.
According to council expense reports, each council member receives an annual base pay remuneration of $27,958; the Reeve and Deputy Reeve receive base pay of $36,468 and $31,605 respectively.
Attendance at regular council meetings is included in the base salary rates, and council also receive per diem for attendance at other board and committee meetings, mileage allowance for travel--which is already at the minimum mandatory rate set by the Canada Revenue Agency, and a communications allowance--which has been beneficial throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when attendance at regular council and committee meetings may not have been feasible.
Council remuneration fell under numerous policies, including overnight and conference attendance. The drafted Council Compensation and Expense Reimbursement Policy will combine the 13 current policies into a singular, overarching policy.
The draft policy will reduce council base pay by 15 per cent and includes compensation for attendance at various social functions as representatives of Kneehill County, including various ceremonies, parades, and photo ops.
Councillor Kenneth King thanked his fellow council members for the work done to review the policies. He moved for the new Council Compensation and Expense Reimbursement Policy to be brought back for ratification at the Tuesday, March 9 council meeting.

A report from the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) says unpaid taxes from oil and gas companies in Alberta have reached a crisis point.
Starland County Reeve Steve Wannston says the county has received the report and the latest numbers indicate that Alberta’s Rural Municipalities are currently owed nearly $250 million. This represents a quarter of a billion dollars that is now not available for roads, bridges, community recreation facilities, community groups, and rural water and sewage systems. For Starland County, the amount currently sits at over $10 million.
“This situation is completely unacceptable to the many hard-working Albertans that pay their taxes through both the ups and downs of the economy. Despite years of lobbying efforts, the Government of Alberta refuses to address this situation through common-sense regulations,” he stated in a press release from the Starland County.
A breakdown of these numbers indicates the problem is not getting better but is accelerating. $250 million represents a 42% increase from the overall amount in RMA’s 2020 member survey and a 203 per cent increase from RMA’s 2019 member survey. The average rural municipality is facing an unpaid tax burden of $3,560,331 from the oil and gas industry. Much of this tax owing is from bankrupt companies which is understandable and expected considering the downturn in the global economy. More troubling is still-operating oil and gas companies are responsible for 57 per cent of the unpaid taxes from the oil and gas industry.
“At present, the government does not consider whether an oil and gas company has paid their property taxes in deciding whether to issue or renew a company’s ability to drill for oil and gas in Alberta. This situation could be rectified easily and quickly but the government has so far refused to do so. Albertans need to ask why they are allowing one set of rules for one industry with another set of rules for everybody else,” the release states.