Sudbury council sounds off on slush funds, stipends

The always hot topic of how much to pay politicians came up at last night's Sudbury city council meeting.

Councillors debated the $1,200 stipend members of the planning committee receive.

There was a suggestion that councillors sitting on any committee should also be compensated.

City councillor Frances Caldarelli said it's their $30,000 base salary that needs to be raised.

"Being the troublemaker I am, I … truthfully think that at some point we should look at paying councillors decently and then you wouldn't have to worry about the little bits for each committee," Caldarelli said. "Because you've got some councillors working 40-45 hours a week."

Slush funds debated

Councillor Claude Berthiaume said he wants to hush talk of the "slush funds" councillors receive.

The $50,000 Healthy Community funds given to each councillor have been under attack in recent weeks.

Berthiaume said it's not accurate to call it a slush fund.

"I resent the fact that we call this a slush fund," he said. "I was looking into the dictionary today and when you talk about a slush fund, they're talking about a fund for supporting political or commercial corruption. I don't think that any of these projects we're supporting are political or commercial corruption."

Berthiaume said that, through his pool of funding, he's recently been able to help out the Onaping seniors club and the Dowling winter carnival.

The city is currently reviewing how the Healthy Community funds are handled.