Opinion

York Region cannot ask residents to treat annual tax increases as unavoidable while treating scrutiny of leadership costs as an inconvenience. The public deserves an honest account of both: what senior officials received and what the growing regional levy delivered.

Honesty requires distinctions. York’s record is not a story of a regional chair receiving a spectacular salary increase. It is a story of rising CAO earnings, a leadership transition, disclosed severance and repeated demands on taxpayers. Those facts are enough to justify scrutiny without embellishment.

Erin Mahoney’s disclosed salary was $305,423.25 in 2023, $342,971.46 in 2024 and $375,023.21 in 2025. Her 2025 taxable benefits were $12,433.20, bringing her disclosed salary and taxable benefits to $387,456.41.

The apparent 12.29 per cent increase in disclosed salary in 2024 needs immediate context. Mahoney became chief administrative officer in September 2023, having previously served as commissioner of Public Works and commissioner of Environmental Services. Her 2023 earnings cover a transition between roles. Calling the subsequent change a straightforward increase for the same position would be misleading.

The 2024-to-2025 comparison is more useful. Her disclosed salary increased by $32,051.75, or 9.35 per cent. That is a significant change in reported annual earnings. Residents deserve a clear breakdown of the components and the approval framework behind it.

Annual disclosure measures calendar-year earnings, not necessarily contractual base salary. An individual explanation of Mahoney’s 2025 change was not established in the records reviewed. That does not establish that no explanation exists. It establishes the question a useful public compensation summary should answer.

The regional chair’s history must also be presented accurately. Wayne Emmerson’s disclosed salary was $241,849.96 in 2023 and $241,913.95 in 2024. He retired on November 29, 2024, making the latter a retirement year rather than necessarily a reflection of his annual salary rate.

Eric Jolliffe’s appointment took effect January 1, 2025. His disclosed 2025 salary was $241,502.09, with $11,340 in taxable benefits, bringing the total to $252,842.09. Comparing that salary with Emmerson’s does not establish one person's raise or another's pay cut. They are different officeholders in different circumstances.

There is another cost residents should understand. York’s official 2025 remuneration report separately identifies $206,820 in severance for Emmerson. It is not Jolliffe’s salary, not a recurring annual chair payment and not an amount that should be combined with his earnings.

The report identifies an existing severance policy, Bylaw 2020-10, and remuneration bylaws. Credit is due for that disclosure. But a documented entitlement remains a legitimate subject for policy debate. What public purpose does the severance policy serve? Are its terms proportionate? How was the policy applied to calculate this payment, and when will council review it? Publication is the starting point for accountability, not a ban on questioning the rule.

What are taxpayers getting in return?

Meanwhile, York’s approved regional tax increases, after assessment growth, were 3.90 per cent in 2023, 3.75 per cent in 2024, 4.55 per cent in 2025 and 4.28 per cent in 2026. Each figure already includes that year's one-percentage-point special levy for rapid transit and infrastructure. Adding another percentage point would exaggerate the increase.

These percentages concern the regional portion, not the entire property tax bill. Local municipal and education changes are separate, as are water and wastewater rates. Individual properties do not necessarily experience identical changes.

The region has identified real service commitments. Its approved 2025 budget planned 304 additional sworn and civilian police staff over two years and 74 paramedics and support staff over two years. Those are commitments to be measured, not completed outcomes simply because council approved funding.

Residents should be able to see how actual recruitment, deployment and service performance compare with those promises. York already publishes strategic performance measures. The task is to connect those measures clearly to the money requested and the results achieved.

How many of the promised positions have been filled? How many additional resources have been deployed? What improvements in response times, service capacity or other performance measures can the region demonstrate? Those are reasonable questions for a government spending public money.

Executive earnings do not, by themselves, explain regional tax increases, and these records do not prove mismanagement. Yet residents need not prove wrongdoing before asking whether compensation policies are sound or spending choices deliver sufficient value.

Council should publish an accessible leadership cost summary, separating regular earnings, exceptional payments, taxable benefits and retirement-related costs. It should explain approval responsibilities and show service results beside major spending commitments, including where delivery falls short.

A useful report would distinguish new spending from existing obligations and explain what alternatives council considered. Without that connection, residents can read the salary disclosures and budget documents separately yet still struggle to understand the financial judgment linking them.

York's taxpayers should not be asked to choose between properly funded services and rigorous financial discipline. They are entitled to both. The region must earn public confidence with intelligible compensation records, defensible policies and demonstrable results every time it asks residents for more.