Mike Del Grande, Toronto city council.
Toronto city councillors have frozen their own wages this year.
Members voted 39 to 3 in favour Tuesday of rejecting the automatic 2011 increase to their $99,619 salaries.
"It's [time to]stand up and be counted. That's what it boils down to," said budget chief Mike Del Grande. "We do have structural deficits here at the city and that is never going to be corrected until we make some hard decisions … and they have to start with us first."
Mr. Del Grande said he moved the motion to send a message of restraint to unionized employees as the city prepares for contract negotiations.
Collective agreements have expired for Toronto's police and firefighters, while the transit workers' deal runs out March 31. Contracts for Toronto's inside and outside workers expire Dec. 31.
Councillors struggle almost every year with whether to accept a scheduled pay increase pegged to the consumer price index.
In the past, some councillors have rejected their raises or donated them to charity.
This time, Councillor Joe Mihevc tried to convince his colleagues to direct the $110,000 in savings from forgoing the modest pay increase to student nutrition programs.
Council voted to send his motion to the budget committee, where it's likely to die.
Mr. Mihevc was one of the three councillors to vote against the pay freeze. The others were North York Councillor John Filion and Scarborough Councillor Ron Moeser.
Mr. Mihevc, who represents Ward 21 St. Paul's, argued that rejecting the pay increase only adds to the anti-politician sentiment stoked during last fall's election.
"It creates such a negative feeling around our profession that, of course, the most logical thing is to cut [the number of]these bums in half, cut their salaries, when we know around here that we actually work very hard for our salaries," he said.
Kelly Grant