Not Volunteer Service

 

---

🎙️ VOICE of NANAIMO

▶️ Click Play to listen

---

Not Exactly Volunteer Public Service

Election-year questions about local pay, accountability, and taxpayer value

This is an election year. Maybe that means taxpayers will be listening a little more closely.

The next B.C. general local elections are scheduled for October 17, 2026. Those elections include mayors, municipal councillors, regional district directors, and school trustees.

So here is a fair question for Nanaimo voters:

How many taxpayers realize that a city councillor who also sits as a Regional District of Nanaimo director can receive a publicly reported compensation package that approaches the income of an average Nanaimo household?

Take Councillor Janice Perrino as one example.

Published 2024 remuneration and expenses

Item	Amount	Source
City of Nanaimo councillor remuneration	$52,014.10	City of Nanaimo 2024 SOFI
City-listed expenses	$11,105.44	City of Nanaimo 2024 SOFI
RDN Nanaimo Director remuneration	$26,496.92	RDN 2024 SOFI
Combined City + RDN remuneration	$78,511.02	Calculated from published figures
Combined remuneration + City-listed expenses	$89,616.46	Calculated from published figures

In 2024, the City of Nanaimo's Statement of Financial Information listed Perrino's councillor remuneration at $52,014.10, with $11,105.44 in expenses. The Regional District of Nanaimo's 2024 Statement of Financial Information listed Perrino as a Nanaimo Director receiving another $26,496.92 in remuneration.

That puts the combined City and RDN remuneration at $78,511.02. Add the City-listed expenses, and the publicly reported pay-and-expense package reaches $89,616.46.

This is not exactly volunteer public service.

The City of Nanaimo's Council Spending and Amenities Policy provides councillors with City-paid benefits comparable to management-level municipal benefits. The RDN's SOFI also notes that remuneration includes gross salary and applicable benefits.

RDN directors may also receive additional stipends for certain meetings. Under the RDN remuneration bylaw, a qualifying Board, Committee, Public Hearing, Public Information Meeting, or Other Business meeting that exceeds four hours receives an additional $60 stipend. The bylaw does not describe this as $60 per hour; it reads as an extra payment when the meeting goes beyond four hours.

The broader point remains: this is a compensated public role, not unpaid volunteer work.

For comparison, Nanaimo's 2024 State of the Economy report estimated the city's 2023 median household income at $81,606 and average household income at $99,320.

So Perrino's combined public remuneration alone is within touching distance of Nanaimo's median household income. Her remuneration plus listed expenses exceeds the median household income and comes within roughly ten thousand dollars of the city's average household income.

Unlike most working households, there is no ordinary time clock here. No hourly wage. No posted minimum-hours requirement. No private-sector-style performance review tied directly to whether the taxpayer received value for money.

This is a paid public position. In fact, it is more than one paid public position.

That matters.

It matters when taxpayers are told to absorb rising taxes. It matters when they ask questions and receive polished talking points instead of direct answers. It matters when public officials speak as though taxpayers are being unreasonable for wanting clarity about how their money is collected, held, and spent.

The old idea of local public service was that citizens stepped forward to serve their community. Today, it increasingly looks like a compensated political track, complete with salaries, expenses, benefits, conferences, board appointments, and overlapping public roles.

There is nothing wrong with paying elected officials fairly.

But there is something very wrong with pretending this is still some modest volunteer sideline while the compensation package approaches what many Nanaimo households live on for an entire year.

So in an election year, voters might want to ask a very basic question:

Are we getting $90,000 worth of accountability?

Because taxpayers are not pestering unpaid volunteers.

They are questioning paid public officials.

And that is exactly what voters should be doing.