Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath’s remuneration for 2023 was $272,392.27, including a base salary of $212,392.27 and a $60,000 payment from Alectra Utilities.
The City of Hamilton released the annual Council and Local Board compensation reports on Friday, as required by Section 284 of the Municipal Act.
Across Canada, mayors of major cities are paid much less.
Calgary’s mayor is paid an annual salary of $213,737, Edmonton $216,585, Ottawa $198,702, Toronto $216,160, and Vancouver $205,914 plus $25,000 for sitting on the regional transit board.
The Premier of Ontario is paid $208,974 annually. Ontario cabinet ministers are paid $165,850. Members of Provincial Parliament are paid $116,500.
In suburban municipalities west of Toronto, local politicians collect base pay plus extra remuneration for their roles overseeing municipal corporations.
Alectra, the local hydro utility which services large portions of Hamilton, Niagara, Peel, York, and Barrie, gives municipal politicians a top-up of $60,000 per year for sitting on its board.
West GTA Mayors are Canada’s highest-paid local politicians
Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti collected $278,474 in 2023. He was paid $150,381 as mayor, $62,093 for sitting on York Regional Council, and added $57,500 from Alectra and $8,500 from Markham District Energy Inc.
Former Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie made $255,233.22 in 2023: $129,438.53 as mayor, $54,484.22 as a regional councillor, $56,250 from Alectra, and $15,060.47 for sitting on the police board.
(Crombie took unpaid leave of absence on October 6, 2023 to run for Ontario Liberal Party leader. She resumed mayoral duties the first week of December and resigned in January.)
Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca reported a salary of $225,277.04 between the City of Vaughan and the Region of York. Neither the Region or City disclosures report any payments from Alectra Utilities. (TPR has emailed Vaughan’s City Clerk to confirm)
York Regional Chair Wayne Emmerson reported a salary of $257,858 for 2023, he did not report any additional pay.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown made $225,259.99 in 2023: $149,022.06 as mayor, $61,108.65 as a regional councillor, and $15,129.28 for sitting on the Peel Regional Police Services Board.
Peel Regional Chair Nando Iannicca made $216,804.34 in 2023: $198,331.15 as chair and $18,473.19 for sitting on the police board.
Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter made $198,399.59 in 2023: $132,563 from Oshawa, 59,866.37 for sitting on Durham Regional Council, and $5,970.22 for sitting on the Durham Region Police Services Board.
(Carter received an additional $5,229.83 in lieu of pension from Durham Region. Durham Region does not provide a pension plan to politicians. Other municipal councils provide themselves with pensions.)
Durham Regional Chair John Henry was paid $209,106.29 in 2023: $204,606.29 as Regional Chair, and $4,500 from Durham OneNet Inc. (Henry received an additional $25,728.92 in lieu of pension.)
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall reported receiving $60,000 from Alectra, topping up his $129,621.85 salary for a total of $189,621.85.
Mayor Horwath’s Italy Trip Expenses Total $4,872.35
Mayor Andrea Horwath’s two-week July 2023 Sister City trip to Racalmuto, Sicily, Italy, cost the City of Hamilton $4,872.35 for the mayor’s travel, accommodation, and per diem.
Members of the public and punditry heavily criticized the trip. Horwath met with municipal officials in Italy and attended various cultural events.
In July, a spokesperson for the Mayor stated the trip cost $4,505.30 for flights and accommodation.
The Section 284 disclosure states flights were $2,952.49, accommodation was $859.20, and the mayor received a per diem of $1,060.66. The per diem is in accordance with City of Hamilton travel policies.
Mayor’s Other Council Travel and Meal Expenses in 2023
Mayor Horwath attended three conferences in 2023: the Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) annual general meeting in Kitchener, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) annual conference, and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference.
In total, conference expenses totalled $3,643.15.
The Mayor expensed $394.84 for accommodation to attend a Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative training session in July.
Mayor Horwath expensed $1,894 for meals and meetings, and $685 for tickets to community events.
Production Details v. 1.0.0 Published: March 24, 2024 Last edited: March 26, 2024 Author: Joey Coleman Edit Record v. 1.0.0 original version v. 1.0.1 changed link to Section 284, report pulled from City website. Original version posted to TPR.
Hamilton does not seem to get much value for $ 272K .
Can anyone list Mayor Horwath accomplishments in 2023 ?
Your right Tom! That’s a whole lot of money for doing absolutely nothing. Worst mayor in the history of Hamilton.
It is an OUTRAGE. Hamilton Mayors don’t deserve ONE HALF of that ridiculous Salary.
Mayor and Councilors should have their wages cut in Half.
For Hamilton being one of Ontario’s, if not Canada’s, most poorly run and maintained cities, it seems like a waste of money.
Hamilton is not the largest city or the most complicated .why are we paying the largest salary for a public servant?. It looks the public is the one serving the major.
Ms. Horvath is the worst mayor this city has ever had. She’s done as much for the city as she did as leader of the NDP, nothing! Between this outrageous salary, a pension for being a city councillor, a pension for being the leader of the NDP and another $60,000 from alectra she should be ashamed. This city needed a young, forward thinking mayor to take us into the future but instead you elected someone that’s stuck on stupid.
Instead of walking out the front door of city hall and addressing the homeless situation I’m sure at the end of the day she sneaks out the back!
Run
You should be shame with your self
Her salary is on par with the other mayors don’t sensationalize it. The Alectra payment is separate, they all double dip.
Whether sensationalized or not doesn’t change the fact that she is terrible at her job.
The article is about her pay, not her performance. And like any political job, no change is instantaneous, the bad work of previous politicians takes time to undo, she hasn’t been in office long enough to be judged.
That’s a whole lot of money,that could be put back into city services, Everytime I exit the highway all I see I litter everywhere,it’s such a poor first impression of Hamilton.
It is a disgrace… this city is extremely poorly run and they want to increase our taxes with the type of leadership or non-leadership we have.
That takes some nerve!!
Highest paid mayor and the worst roads in Ontario. Tired of spending thousands repairing my car
Well that explains why we still have horrible roads in the industrial area..
Shocking, really. With tent cuties springing up across the country, such luxurious all-expenses-paid living is unconscionable. Self-serving comes to mind. Typical of government at all levels.
Her salary is not warranted..she has done nothing.
How do we lower her salary though? We can’t. Our taxes are going up and probably her salary.
I’m not loving our city right now.
Politicians at all levels are becoming liabilities.
Andrea Horwath couldn’t have a lower profile. It seems being mayor is just a place holder for her until she can get back into provincial politics.
I think rather than pay her that much, fix the bloody roads. Never see a cop on the mountain. Why am I paying high taxes. Time to move, this city never get anything done EVER.
It looks like competation who get more salary, is brave! it is not who will supposed to develop and improve that city they lead and elected for.
I wished to see some improvement in our city Hamilton. Unfortunate not, I am seeing the worse.
Dose she noticed at least the worse streets ever seen when she drives?.
What we noticed more and more homeless, even on living on mountain parks. Both mountain and down town areas really in misrable condition when compared to any other cities. We pay more taxes over our budget, price of Alectra doubled, gas trippled, no jobs, life getting with no joy.
Is it fair to pay so high salaries for people never think on their folks how they struggle.
Not sure why she and others getting so high salary, and they say inflation, is it just for poor or low income people must struggle to pay for rich people to be more rich. Not only Mayers, how about sunshine salaries?. Are they really deserve that huge salary they get?.
Unfortunate we see life getting not joyble in our beautiful Hamilton.
Unbelievable. I had no idea it was that much… And for what? Honestly, for what? Not to mention $60K from Alectra to ‘Sit’ on their board? To smile phoney smiles, nod and agree that they should raise their rates some more? Yes, I am thoroughly disgusted. Alectra ‘s kickback alone is more than I have ever made as a college graduate from Mohawk College. Way to go guys!
Simply disgusting.