Seeing that the board is roughly on the same playing field as other jurisdictions of similar size, Pembina Hills trustees decided at their Feb. 9 meeting not to change the reimbursements they receive for travel expenses for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year.
Typically, the Pembina Hills board reviews their honourariums and reimbursements for travel expenses every August, which is what the previous Pembina Hills board did in the fall of 2021.
Pembina Hills trustees are reimbursed a mileage rate of 50 cents per kilometre, plus a breakfast allowance of $10, a lunch allowance of $15 and a supper allowance of $25.
However, the Oct. 18 election brought on five new trustees to the six-member board, and a request was put forward to review mileage rates in the new year.
Board chair Judy Lefebvre said administration looked at the rates paid out to trustees from other school jurisdictions of similar size and found Pembina Hills was comparable to the others.
The Buffalo Trail and Grande Yellowhead School Divisions reimburse their trustees with a mileage rate of 50 cents per kilometre, while the Northern Gateway and Wild Rose School Divisions pay a rate of 52 centres per kilometre.
The Sturgeon School Division broke from the rest and reimbursed trustees at the same rate as Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees, which is considered the maximum rates allowable before taxes.
The other divisions also had similar allowances for meals, though Northern Gateway was somewhat of an outlier by providing trustees an extra $10 for breakfast, lunch and dinner on top of what Pembina Hills trustees would get.
"We’re kind of where everybody else is right now,” said Lefebvre. “So we thought we’ll just wait and see what happens, and we can look at it again at our August meeting.”
The other option presented by administration was to raise the reimbursements for trustees to the same level as the rates paid out by the Government of Alberta or the federal government.
The province pays a mileage rate of 50.5 cents per kilometre and provides a breakfast allowance of $9.20, a lunch allowance of $11.60 and a supper allowance of $20.75.
The Government of Canada provides employees with 51.5 cents per kilometre for travel and a breakfast allowance of $21.35, a lunch allowance of $21.60 and a supper allowance of $53.
However, trustees decided against trying to match either the provincial or federal government and will instead wait and see what travel costs are like in the fall.
“With the price of gas now going up, who knows what’s going to happen between now and the end of August,” Lefebvre added.
.jpg;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
