Working in local government is usually not a jet-setting affair but a local councillor recently found her expenses for attending a conference in Ottawa this spring under the public microscope.
At last week’s city finance and audit committee meeting on Sept. 17, city staff presented the expense reports for councillors for the first six months of the year, with Coun. Hilary Eastmure’s budget being $6,000 higher than that of other councillors.
During the meeting, Laura Mercer, the city’s general manager of corporate services said there had been “some confusion” about why some city councillor’s annual budgets were higher than others’.
Wendy Fulla, director of finance for the city, said that during the budgeting process, all councillors had budgets that included all of the conferences and seminars councillors can attend during the year.
She said some of the councillors also said they would not be seeking reimbursement for internet use and that, “mindful of the high property tax increase,” when some councillors indicated they would not attend the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Ottawa in May that funding was removed from their budgets.
“So that’s why not every councilor has the same expense budget,” she said. “It was based on what you were indicating that you thought you would spend this year just to be mindful of the property tax increase and not budget for things that we didn’t anticipate needing the funding for.”
Fulla explained that the budget for Councillor Hilary Eastmure was $6,000 higher than other councillor’s budgets because other councillors had indicated they were not going to attend the conference in Ottawa.
Eastmure told The Discourse that conferences like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities are valuable opportunities for councillors to lobby higher levels of government.
“Attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention is really important because we’re seeing that municipal property taxes alone can’t keep up with what we’re expected to cover,” she said, adding that inadequate federal funding leaves gaps that the city has to try and fill.
Eastmure, who campaigned on working as a city councillor as her sole full-time job, said residents deserve councillors who are focused on council work and are “making time to take advantage of these opportunities to learn and advocate for what we need from the federal government to really address the intersecting crises that we’re dealing with in Nanaimo that are the result of federal underfunding.”
Coun. Sheryl Armstrong, who had the lowest expenses of any city councillor so far this year at $303, defended Eastmure’s expenses.
“Hilary is learning a lot about municipal government and these conferences she is attending are very helpful in that role. She also did a report on what she had learned at each conference,” Armstrong replied on Facebook. “I did the same my first term as these conferences provide some good information. These are also a chance to meet with provincial ministers and share view points on the issues facing our community.”
Fewer councillors attend federal conference compared to previous years
In 2024, the mayor and councillors claimed a total of $77,457 in expenses with Eastmure using the most at $11,660 and Mayor Leonard Krog using the least at $3,887. The average for the nine members of council was $8,616.33, with four members with expenses above $10,000: Armstrong, Paul Manly, Janice Perrino and Eastmure.
The mayor and councillors are all authorized to attend four major conferences a year: the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Union of BC Municipalities, the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities and the State of the Island Economic Summit.
Armstrong, Eastmure, Manly, Perrino and Ben Geselbracht all attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Calgary that year, according to financial records.
All councillors, but not the mayor, also claimed expenses for the Union of BC Municipalities in Vancouver in 2024 and everyone except Coun. Tyler Brown attended the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities conference in Nanaimo.
This year, the mayor and all councillors except for Armstrong and Brown attended the Union of BC Municipalities conference that is being held in Victoria this week.
How much are councillors paid?
In 2024, the base pay for a city councillor was $52,014 while the mayor was paid $131,790. The base pay is the median rate of 12 comparable municipalities and is adjusted for inflation to a maximum of two per cent a year.
However, those councillors who are also on the Regional District of Nanaimo’s (RDN) board of directors are paid an additional salary.
In 2024, the eight members of council who are RDN directors were paid between $26,497 (Perrino) to $29,197 (Manly), according to the RDN’s financial statement. Eastmure was paid $4,350 for her work as an alternate director when other city councillors could not attend. This is on top of their pay as councillors.
Eastmure had the highest expenses of any city councillor for the first six months of 2025 at $6,523.10. Of that, $5,495 was spent on attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Ottawa this past May. While it is in her budget, Eastmure has not claimed any reimbursement for her internet use as it is included in her rent, which she estimates eats up half of her income.
“I know that $6,000 more to travel to a conference in Ottawa does seem like a lot of money, and it’s a lot of money to me,” she told The Discourse. “…But I really consider these conferences to be a critical part of my job as a councillor.”
Eastmure said she understands people are concerned about how their money is being spent and encourages anyone with a concern to contact her directly, or tag her on Facebook.
“I would be happy to meet and talk and share what we’re working on and why it’s important for me to be saying yes to these opportunities,” she said.
