Iqaluit could have full-time mayor soon

DAN BENOIT

The Iqaluit’s mayor’s job could become a full-time paid position as early as the end of this month, if Iqaluit City Council approves the idea.

Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik said the idea was proposed during the 2007 budget discussions on Jan. 22.

“I can put in a full day every day if I want to,” Sheutiapik said on Tuesday this week.

“Being a capital and a fast-growing city there’s always documents to be signed. It is a busy full-time job, especially this past year.”

Sheutiapik said if the city is going to get high quality of candidates to run for mayor, they’ll have to make it worth while. No one will want to give up a full-time job to work part-time, she said.

To increase the mayor’s salary, council would have to amend the council remuneration bylaw.

Finance Director John Hussey said, if council says yes, this could happen by the end of the month.

Hussey said the increase would probably double the pay that the mayor earns now, from $38,000 to $76,000 a year.

The idea of a full time mayor’s position has been raised several times in the recent past.

In 2002, Iqaluit East MLA Ed Picco asked city council to consider changing the mayor’s position from a half-time to a full-time job.

Like Sheutiapik, Picco said at the time that Iqaluit, as Canada’s newest capital city and one of its fastest-growing cities, should elect a full-time mayor.

He said a full-time mayor could devote more hours to tackling issues and lobbying the territorial and federal governments.

Picco also suggested more residents would likely run for the mayor’s position if they were guaranteed a full-time salary.