The District of Squamish (DOS) has revealed its top earners in its Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) report for 2023.
SOFI documentation is provincially mandated to be released by all municipalities on an annual basis for transparency reasons.
Starting with the council, Squamish's seven elected officials took home $361,900 in remuneration last year between them, with Mayor Armand Hurford earning $97,558, and the six councilors earning $44,057 each.
They claimed a total of $44,426 in expenses for the year, with Hurford claiming the most at $11,503
As 2022 was an election year, comparisons with that year are harder to make: Previous mayor Karen Elliott held the office for 10 months in 2022 and earned $79,459, while Hurford was a councillor for the same period, and mayor from Nov. 1 through to the end of 2023 and earned $51,255.
The district is also required by provincial legislation to report on remuneration paid to employees who earn over $75,000, of which there were 108 in 2023, earning a total of $11,679,085 between them.
This represents a jump from 2022, when 96 district employees earned over $75K, with the total paid to them coming in at $10,191,485.
Of the top-paid public servants in 2023, the highest paid employee was Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Linda Glenday, who took home $234,421 in remuneration, and claimed $7,032 in expenses in 2023, up from 2022 when she earned $225,803 (an increase of 3.81%).
As the top bureaucrat, CAOs are typically always the highest paid public servant in a municipality, though there were another seven employees earning north of $150K in 2023: General manager of corporate services, Robin Arthurs earned $182,735; general manager of financial services, Heather Boxrud earned $178,271; fire captain Kyle Derkson earned $163,235; fire chief Aaron Foote earned $150,660; general manager of public safety, Megan Latimer earned $175,435; general manager of community services, William (Bill) Stoner earned $167,046, and general manager of community development, Julie Wengi earned $171,028.
Together with the eight employees earning over $150K, there were another 44 employees earning over $100K, while the remainder were between $75K and $100K.
The total remuneration paid to all DOS employees came in at $21,922,664 in 2023, up from $20,371,508 in 2022.
Expenses
The amount of expenses claimed was markedly higher, however. Total expenses claimed by employees who earned over $75K in 2023 was $199,535, while employees who came in under the threshold claimed $133,209 for a total of $332,745.
The number represents a 37% increase over expenses claimed by employees in 2022, when employees earning over $75K claimed $143,839, and those under claimed $97,835 for a total of $241,674.
Contractors
Also contained within the SOFI documents are payments to contractors by the District over the financial year, with those that received more than $25K listed by name, of which there are 203 companies listed that collectively were paid $63,152,191. Companies paid less than $25K for the entirety of the financial year received $4,476,651.
Some of the institutions that received the most in payments from the DOS for services were Alpine Paving ($3,396,141), Coast Valley Contracting ($2,89,387), GFL Environmental ($4,787,787), the RCMP ($6,062,425), the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District ($5,372,269) and Unitech Construction Management ($6,526,807).
Also among the listed companies was the parent company of The Squamish Chief, Pacific Coast Publications, which received $131,809 from the District of Squamish for legislatively required public notices and advertisements.
The entire SOFI document can be read on the District of Squamish website, and the report was received by council at a special business meeting on June 18.
