With this weeks City Council session falling on International Women's Day this year, two of the City's Councillors took some time on Monday to address some comments on the theme of women in the workplace, in particular the City Hall workplace.
The topic first came up during the Budget conversation with Councillor Skelton-Morven paying tribute to the work of the 'rock star women of our staff' making note of the progressive and forward thinking ways that were used to address the financial needs of the community.
The Councillor expanded on his theme to include commentary on the current compensation plan in place at City Hall and how in order to keep the best staff in the country, the city needs to compensate them fairly.
"There's some chatter on social media, or you have headlines that are published out of context regarding staff compensation and I just want to put some things into perspective for folks that are watching at home.
That you look at entry level jobs for industry, that are clearing six figures just at that starting point and for us to have competitive rates, this is just basic economics and staff retention, is to maintain the quality of staff that we have and I firmly believe that we have some of the best staff in the country working with us and able to do the things we are doing is that they are compensated fairly and I think that is super, super important." -- Councillor Skelton Morven
Later in the evening, Councillor Mirau perhaps noting of the faces on the Zoom Screen on the night, observed that there was as a lack of representation by women around the elected offices at City Hall, something that came about with the results of the 2018 election which returned an all male Council for the four year term.
"I just want to follow up on Councillor Skelton-Morven's recognition of International Women's Day, recognizing of course that we do have a couple of fantastic role models in our senior staff. It's impossible for me to ignore that any woman in Prince Rupert does not see herself currently reflected in her elected leadership.
So I know it's going to seem outrageously early to be thinking about the next election, but I did want to extend the offer to anyone who is, even if it's just a passing thought, they are more than welcome to reach out to me to have a conversation about what this job actually entails, the time and energy commitments, the practical reality of what it means to be an elected official in Prince Rupert" -- Councillor Blair Mirau
For his part Councillor Skelton-Morven echoed some of Mr. Mirau's themes and also offered his services to help inform anyone seeking a council seat.
"Councillor Mirau actually beat me to the punch there, I was actually going to make a lot of notions regarding our very one sided representation here on Council and I kind of echo a lot of those notions and either reach out to Councillor Mirau or myself and I would be more than happy to help kind of give an idea as to what it is to be an elected official" -- Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven
Circling back to Councillor Skelton Morven's earlier thoughts on civic compensation, considering the rewarding compensation package currently offered for staff work, which outside of the Mayor's salary, is significantly higher than the council membership; perhaps the women of Prince Rupert are already making their mark and may be wisely inclined to just take a pass on the Council chamber work.
You can explore more of the councillors thoughts on the quest for more female participation in elected office from the City's Video Archive starting at the one hour, two minute mark.
For more notes on Monday's Council session see our Council Timeline Feature here.
A wider overview of Council Discussion themes see our archive page here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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