This week saw a bit of online discussion about expenses for city councillors when the expense reports for the first six months of 2025 were presented at the city’s finance and audit committee meeting.
The chatter on the Facebook group The Nanaimo Zone centred around Coun. Hilary Eastmure’s budget, which is $14,100 — $6,000 higher than other city councillors.
The reason is that Eastmure was the only councillor who travelled to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Ottawa this spring, something that is open to all councillors.
Coun. Sheryl Armstrong, who had the lowest expenses of any city councillor this year, defended Eastmure’s expenses.
“Hilary is learning a lot about municipal government and these conferences she is attending are very helpful in that role. She also did a report on what she had learned at each conference,” Armstrong replied on the Facebook post. “I did the same my first term as these conferences provide some good information. These are also a chance to meet with provincial ministers and share view points on the issues facing our community.”
Eastmure's report to council be viewed in the mayor's report section of the video of the June 9, 2025 council meeting.
While the discussion was relatively brief, it was illustrative of both how people can become outraged when they don’t have the full context and how public officials can engage and explain things to their constituents
You can read more about what happened at last week’s finance and audit committee meeting in our weekly Council Corner section below.
Speaking of which, I would love to hear from you about what you think about that relatively new addition to the newsletter and how we can improve it. If you have any thoughts on our city hall coverage you can email me at mick@thediscourse.ca.
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