Last November, the Sunshine Coast Foundation reported the area’s living wage was $25.61 per hour, or about $48,000 per annum based on a 37.5 hour work week. The release of 2023 audit results and statement of financial information (SOFI) at the April 18 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) finance committee meeting, showed 95 employees earning salaries of $75,000 a year or more. Adding in benefits that include extended medical programs, pension contributions and insurance coverage, compensation to over a third of those working for the SCRD (Coast Reporter was advised by the SCRD that it had about 250 full-time positions in 2023) is double or more than the local living wage rate.
The previous year’s SOFI report showed 83 SCRD employees earning $75,000 or more a year. The number of those earning over $100,000 a year went from 37 in 2022 to 47 in 2023. In both years, the highest salary went to the organization’s chief administrative officer, Dean McKinley, who earned $251,837 in 2023 compared to $214,161 the year before.
Speaking to the most recent reporting, chief financial officer Tina Perreault noted that the threshold at which the province requires the region release details on annual salary amounts for individuals had been at $75,000 “for more than 20 years." Her view was that rising wages and an unchanged reporting level resulted in the increase in the number of staff with compensation levels that required disclosure.
Committee members had no questions related to the 2023 SOFI report. They voted to send it, along with the report on the audit of the district’s finances to board for consideration of adoption at its April 25 meeting.
'Clean' 2023 audit report
The 2023 draft audit findings were presented at the meeting by Cory Vanderhorst, regional assurance partner of MNP LLP Auditors. In that, the auditors provided an “unqualified” opinion or “clean report," meaning their review indicated that the region’s accounting metrics and policies were fairly presented.
Outstanding, in some cases since 2017, remain audit report comments regarding the need for updating of SCRD financial policies and procedures. At the meeting, McKinley stated that staff have developed a plan to address those. He said that with the approval to add staff in the legislative services department in 2024, he anticipated progress in that area this year.
The audit revealed total revenues in 2023 at $69.8 million. That was slightly lower than the $70 million that the SCRD had budgeted for but over 2022 revenues of $58.8 million. On the expenditure side, 2023’s total was $53.9 million, under the budgeted level of $59.8 million but up from $48.9 million in spending from the previous year. The result was an increased surplus of $15.9 million, up from $9.9 million in 2022.
Accumulated surpluses at the SCRD totalled almost $190 million at the end of 2023. The staff report on the meeting agenda outlined that “this is a financial performance indicator of the overall health of the organization and represents the net positive resources available in providing current and future services, mostly represented by tangible capital assets.
“The SCRD realized a change to its financial equity with an increase in net financial assets to $39,404,739 in 2023 from $25,280,983 in 2022…This is a positive indication of the financial health of the SCRD and is reflective of the increase in reserve funds available to fund future capital maintenance and replacement plans.”
