PoCo council pay and expenses ticked up $93k in 2024: report

Including salaries, benefits and expenses, Port Coquitlam’s mayor and council were paid a total of $602,937 last year – an increase of 18 percent from 2023, according to the city’s recently approved annual report.

Mayor Brad West was paid $201,688, including expenses and benefits, a raise of approximately $33,000.

Not including benefits, the city’s six councillors were each paid $56,756, a bump of $7,600 from last year.

Council previously voted in favour of 12.5 percent salary increases in 2024 and 2025.

These figures do not include payments from Metro Vancouver, which range from an annual salary of $109,337 for a board chair to meeting payments of $547 for board and committee members.

Coun. Darrell Penner chalked up $9,408 in expenses. On the other end of the spectrum, Coun. Steve Darling toted up $1,354 in costs for travel and other expenses generally associated with representing the city at meetings and conferences.

The city is continuing to pay down $102 million in debt. Approximately half the debt was accrued to pay for the Port Coquitlam Community Centre, with the Coast Meridian Overpass and Downtown PoCo land acquisition each accounting for about a quarter of the debt.

The debt has dropped from $89.7 in 2023 to $87.8 million in 2024.

The city is planning to pay down $5 million of the debt per year for the next three years before making a $30-million payment in 2028.

Port Coquitlam has a $25.2 million loan with a variable interest rate that was 4.05 percent at the end of 2024. Repayment is required by July 31, 2028.

In 2023, there were 21 city employees who took home more than $150,000, including benefits and expenses. There were 49 employees who earned more than $150,000 in 2024, including seven who earned more than $200,000.

Chief administrative officer Robert Bremner garnered the top salary in 2024, taking home $314,531.

Other top earners included director of engineering Joshua Frederick at $240,818, director of development services Bruce Irvine at $238,389, director of finance Jeffrey Lovell at $228,168 and deputy chief administrative officer Karen Grommada at $223,047.

The city employed 341 full-time workers in 2024 – 13 more than 2023.

The city’s biggest corporate taxpayer for 2024 was the numbered company that owns the shopping centre, which paid $1.73 million, a slight dip from 2023.

The Canadian Pacific Railway Co. paid the city $1.31 million last year – an increase of more than $100,000 from 2023.

Many of the other major municipal taxpayers own warehouses or storage facilities, such as Kebet Holdings and LWest Holdings, which paid $904,503 and $817,723, respectively.

Saputo Holdings paid $864,518 in taxes on their Kingsway Avenue manufacturing operation.

The Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada received a $186,714 property tax exemption last year, the largest tax relief offered in 2024.

Other top beneficiaries of tax exemptions included $71,056 granted to Our Lady of Assumption Roman Catholic Church and $61,301 for Kinsight Community Society.

The city offered a total of $753,981 in tax exemptions in 2024.

Port Coquitlam paid $3.8 million to the Coquitlam in 2024, including $3.4 million as part of the RCMP cost-share, as well as money for animal shelter services and various shared costs.

Port Coquitlam also paid $248,000 to the City of Surrey in 2024 for regional fire services.