Oak Bay council is cutting its own pay in what could be a first for a B.C. municipality.

The mayor and council have voted in favour of taking a one per cent pay cut as of Jan. 1, in keeping with a drop in the cost of living in the region between last September and this one.

Since 1997, Oak Bay council has tied its pay increases to the cost of living in the Victoria area. It’s the first time since then that the cost of living has decreased.

“Council felt that the policy was in place and just because it didn’t convenience us was no reason to change it,” said Mayor Christopher Causton. “This is the first time I’ve heard of pay decreasing for a council.”

Deciding council remuneration is often awkward, since those who vote on any pay increase stand to benefit from it. Many councils have come up with practices to avoid the perceived conflict.

Some municipalities have committees review their pay, while others take the average of pay levels offered in comparable municipalities.

Several veteran politicians said they weren’t aware of any precedents for the move, although some councils have frozen pay levels for a year.

Victoria councillor Geoff Young said that up until two years ago, Victoria’s remuneration was also tied to the cost of living. If that policy were still in effect, Young said he would have been in favour of a pay decrease if the formula dictated that.

“If it is tied to inflation, it works both ways. Frankly, people haven’t thought in terms of negative inflation, so a lot of things that are tied to this are assumed to go only one way,” Young said.

Victoria has a three-member citizen committee that makes a recommendation to council on pay, although council makes the final decision on whether to accept that recommendation.

In Saanich, salaries are determined by a survey of 10 comparable municipalities.

“If that says we have a decrease, I’d follow it,” Mayor Frank Leonard said.“I find that over the years if you stick to a policy consistently, it all works out in the long run.”

The decrease won’t have that big an impact in Oak Bay, where the mayor is paid $27,371 a year, while councillors are paid $11,615.

Asked what his hourly rate would be, Causton said, “My wife says the community is getting good value for the money.”

Area councils deal with their pay at different times of the year. Oak Bay does it now, while others tackle it when they do budgets.

kwestad@tc.canwest.com