The Town of Smithers paid close to $236,500 more to employees and just over $910,000 more to suppliers in 2022 compared to 2021.
Those were the two big takeaways from the town’s 2022 Statement of Financial Information presented to council recently.
In total, salaries accounted for $4,870,755 of the town’s expenses for the year, up from $4,634,245 the previous year.
Of that, $2,336,280 was paid to employees who make more than $75,000 per year. In 2022, 24 town workers topped the $75,000 mark, up from 22 in 2021.
The top earner in the town ranks was Dianna Plouffe, the Chief Administrative Officer, who took home $168,618. There were also six other employees making six figures.
By provincial law, municipalities must disclose all salaries over $75,000 and contractor payments over $25,000.
Of the latter, the greatest was $2,222,596 to Terus Construction for paving, the next was just over $2 million to the RCMP and the third biggest was $1,268,331 to Lyon’s Landscaping the Kamloops firm that did the landscaping on Main Street last year.
The Statement of Financial Information is the final piece of documentation the town must produce to fulfill requirements under the B.C. Financial Information Act. Most of those requirements are met by the Annual Audited Financial Statements which were presented to and approved by council in April.
The SOFI includes those statements as well as the additional schedules of employee and council remuneration, schedule of supplier payments and a schedule of grants and contributions.
Over in Telkwa, the village has four employees who made over the $75K threshold in 2022. The top earner was the Chief Administrative Officer, Debbie Joujan, who took home $118,965. In total, the village paid out $931, 609 in salaries.
The village also paid out $4,415,867 to contractors, the biggest to Terus Construction at $899,951 for paving.
-with files from Thom Barker