WHO BARGAINS FOR THE TAXPAYER?

🎙️ VOICE of NANAIMO

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Labour Peace. Taxpayer Surrender.

The City of Nanaimo is celebrating “labour peace” after reaching a new three-year deal with CUPE Local 401. Nice phrase. Soft phrase. Safe phrase. But for the people paying the bills, there is a harder question underneath it:

Who is bargaining in good faith for the taxpayer?

The new deal covers 2026 through 2028 and provides a general wage increase of 4% per year.
Let’s strip away the press-release language and call it what it is. A 4% increase in 2026, 4% in 2027, and 4% in 2028 is not “12%.” Because of compounding, it works out to about 12.49%. And that is only the new contract. The previous CUPE agreement already delivered 4% in 2023, 4% in 2024, and 3.5% in 2025, which compounds to about 11.95%. Put the two contracts together and CUPE wages are on track to rise about 25.92% from 2023 through 2028. That is not a minor adjustment. That is a major permanent increase in the cost base of local government.

And here is the part taxpayers really should notice: Nanaimo’s own Exempt Salary Administration Policy says exempt and management employees are to receive annual salary adjustments “consistent with the across-the-board increases approved for CUPE Local 401.” In plain English, when CUPE moves up, exempt pay is designed to move with it. So this is not just one contract affecting one group. It helps push the whole compensation structure upward.

Now compare that with inflation. B.C.’s all-items CPI averaged 3.9% in 2023, 2.6% in 2024, and 2.1% in 2025. That compounds to about 8.84% over the life of the first CUPE deal. Then inflation cooled further: B.C.’s CPI in February 2026 was 1.7% higher than February 2025. So the city is now locking in another three straight years of 4% wage growth in a much softer inflation environment than the one used to justify larger raises a few years ago.

That is the part that should bother people. When inflation goes up, government says wages must keep up. When inflation comes down, wages do not come down with it.Funny how that works.

Contracts are tied to inflation on the way up, but never on the way down. Taxpayers are told to absorb higher grocery bills, higher utility bills, higher housing costs, and higher property taxes. Families are told to tighten their belts. Seniors are told to budget carefully. But City Hall payroll seems to operate under a different law of gravity: it rises when inflation rises, and it still rises when inflation falls.

Now, to be fair, the union is doing what unions do. CUPE bargains for its members. That is its job. No surprise there. But who is doing the taxpayer’s job? Council wants labour peace. Management wants stability, and CUPE increases benefit their increases. Staff want smooth operations. Everyone inside the system has a reason to sign off on higher costs, spread them over time, and call it “responsible.” But taxpayers do not sit at that table. They just get the invoice after the applause dies down.

And that is why this matters. Every one of these above-inflation settlements becomes part of the permanent base. It is not one-time money. It does not disappear next year. It rolls forward. It compounds. It drives future budgets. It drives future taxes. And then the same people who approved it turn around and tell residents that rising taxes are regrettable but unavoidable.

Unavoidable? No. Predictable.

If you keep approving above-inflation increases across a municipal payroll structure, you are choosing higher future taxes. That is not an accident. It is policy.

So ask the question every time City Hall celebrates another deal.
Ask it plainly. Ask it without apology:

VOICE of NANAIMO