Lloydminster‘s mayor and council do not vote themselves a raise. Their pay moves on its own, tied to a formula that averages cabinet minister salaries in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

That means when either province gives its cabinet ministers a raise, as Alberta did this spring, council pay in Lloydminster moves with it. No motion. No debate. No local vote.

City communications staff confirmed the structure to BorderPulse this week, after questions about how the formula works and where public criticism of council pay may have gone wrong.

How the formula works

Under Council Remuneration Policy 120-03, amended Nov. 25, 2024, the mayor’s salary is set at 64.4 per cent of the average salary of a Saskatchewan cabinet minister and an Alberta cabinet minister. Councillors are paid 38.2 per cent of the mayor’s salary.

“You are correct regarding how the remuneration is currently structured,” Nyah Foote, the city’s Coordinator of Communications, said in a written statement to BorderPulse.

“The formula provides a consistent and transparent approach to remuneration, with annual changes determined by the established formula,” Foote said.

Foote added that under The Lloydminster Charter, council remuneration decisions are technically made by council resolution. In practice, salary changes flow from the formula rather than from a council vote on individual raises.

What that looks like in dollars

The city did not provide BorderPulse with the exact current dollar figure paid to the mayor and council. Using the most recent provincial minister salary figures, BorderPulse calculated a ballpark estimate of what the formula produces.

An Alberta cabinet minister with a portfolio earns $191,515 as of April 1, 2026, combining a $127,677 MLA indemnity with a $63,838 minister allowance, according to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. A Saskatchewan cabinet minister earns $171,200, combining a $113,442 MLA indemnity with a $57,758 minister allowance, according to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.

Averaging those two figures gives $181,358. Applying the formula, the mayor’s salary works out to roughly $116,794. A councillor’s salary, at 38.2 per cent of that, works out to roughly $44,615.

Those are ballpark calculations based on the formula and current provincial figures, not confirmed city payroll numbers.

Not unique, but close to it

Tying council pay to a provincial legislator’s salary is not unique to Lloydminster. Several Saskatchewan cities do some version of it.

Yorkton pays its mayor 75 per cent of an MLA’s salary, with councillors at 30 per cent of that. Weyburn ties its mayor to 52.5 per cent of MLA base salary. Saskatoon and Regina both moved their mayor’s salary to match a Saskatchewan cabinet minister’s full rate in 2019.

What sets Lloydminster apart is averaging two provinces’ minister salaries at once, a direct result of the city straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. BorderPulse could not find another Canadian municipality that does this.

Lloydminster’s single RCMP detachment already reflects that same bi-provincial reality. The city’s pay formula appears to be another product of it.