Contractual obligations through both firefighter and CUPE contracts played a large role in a significant payroll hike within Kelowna city hall.
In 2024, the city doled out more than $115.1 million in salaries including more than $500,000 for mayor and council. That鈥檚 nearly 15 per cent more than was paid out the previous year.
A large part of that increase, according to people and protective services general manager Stu Leatherdale, came as a result of contractual obligations to firefighters and the approximately 800 CUPE employees.
鈥淲e had a fairly sizable IAAF firefighter retro (retroactive payment) come through in 2024,鈥 said Leatherdale, explaining bargaining often takes a while to complete which often involves retroactive payments.
鈥淲e paid out a pretty sizable retro in January and February of 2024 for the previous two years.鈥
That scenario will likely play out again in a few years. The current contract with the city鈥檚 firefighters expired at the end of last year.
Leatherdale said the IAAF have not asked to begin bargaining on a new agreement.
Part of the CUPE agreement included a 鈥渕arket adjustment鈥 late in 2023 that Leatherdale said impacted the 2024 payroll.
While exact numbers were not available, Leatherdale said the city employs about 1,100 staff including firefighters, CUPE and management personnel. There are another 300 or so part-time and casual employees.
Leatherdale said some of those are new positions created as the city continues to see incredible growth.
鈥淭here is always demand for different types of services and some of them are new services,” he said
鈥淲e brought Journey Home in-house and created a social development department. Those are all new city jobs which would have been paid out to contractors or not done in the past.
鈥淲e are probably talking about seven jobs in that department which were brought in at the end of 2023 and 2024.鈥
Leatherdale said slightly more than half of the city鈥檚 operational spending is on people. About 32 per cent of spending is on staff with 21 per cent on contractors and consultants.
In terms of the overall money being spent, Leatherdale reminded residents it is 鈥渆xtraordinarily competitive鈥 to find qualified staff. The city, he said, is competing not only with other municipalities but the private sectors as well, which typically pays more.
鈥淵ou do get what you pay for when it comes to people who are competent and able to lead a complex organization like this,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 think in some ways if you look at what the city is accomplishing the last couple of years, the results speak for themselves.鈥
Plus, the city runs the ninth busiest airport in the country, a regional landfill and other regional services and water and wastewater facilities that other municipalities are not responsible for.
鈥淭here is some complexity to that. Then layer on top of that the pace that we are growing,” Leatherdale said.
鈥淵ou need people that are competent in order to lead that.鈥