Tilley’s motion means no raise for CBS councillors

By Craig Westcott

Unlike the Town’s unionized workers and management, members of CBS council will not get a raise again this year.
Councillors voted December 16 to approve their remuneration for 2026 at the same level of pay as last year.
Members of council are paid in quarterly installments beginning in April with subsequent payments in July, October and mid December.
Under council’s salary policy, the mayor receives a total of $46,079 per year, while the deputy mayor is paid $32,085. Councillors, whether at-large, or as ward representatives, receive $30,142. CBS councillors have not voted themselves a raise in at least five years.
And while CBS may be the largest municipality in the province next to St. John’s, its pay rates for councillors does not put it at the top of the scale. In Corner Brook, for instance, councillors earn $32,209 a year, thanks to a raise they voted themselves in 2024. Paradise councillors, by comparison, have been paid some $35,736 annually, at least since 2021. Mount Pearl councillors receive $39,419 a year, with the mayor making some $13,000 a year more than his colleagues in CBS and Paradise.
Meanwhile, unionized workers and managers with the Town of CBS will get a 2.5 per cent raise this year.
Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley made the motion to leave the rates for councillors unchanged.
“No increase again this year, Santa?” Mayor Darrin Bent joked.
“No increase, sir,” said Tilley.
The motion passed unanimously.