The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District board received the district’s annual Statements of Financial Information (SOFI) at its June 23 meeting, which details the top earners among staff, as well as payments to suppliers.
Fifteen employees earned remuneration (which includes things like employee contributions to the Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance and health benefits) above the $75,000 SOFI threshold last year, up from 11 in 2019.
Director of legislative and corporate services and interim CAO Kristen Clark led the way with a remuneration of $190,961, followed by outgoing CAO Lynda Flynn at $140,974 (Flynn also did contract Emergency Operations Centre work for the SLRD in 2020).
All told, the SLRD paid $2,494,202 to its staff in 2020, up from $2,371,406 the year before.
But this year’s SOFI report should be viewed through the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, said SLRD chair Jen Ford.
“The pandemic took a huge toll on our team at the regional district … we had a couple of people leave shortly before the pandemic, and that created an enormous workload on a very, very small staff,” Ford said.
The result was extra contract work to fill the gaps, “so it does show a bit of a skewed picture,” she said.
The SLRD’s 2020 SOFI lists $7,382,393 in payments to suppliers and $18.9 million in total expenses (compared to $11 million and $19.2 million, respectively, in 2019).
“There wasn’t any big, huge expenses [in 2020],” Ford said, noting that one large expense, making board meetings more accessible through technology, was covered by a safe restart grant from the province.
