Syrian refugee coordinator's $1.8K-a-day pay irks union and opposition

Montreal opposition parties and municipal unions are slamming Mayor Denis Coderre for paying one of his former top employees$1,800 a day to co-ordinate the arrival of refugees in the city.

Michel Dorais,who was Canada's deputy minister of immigration from1998 to 2004,will be paid $110,000 for the three-month job of heading the city's committee to welcome thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre was federalimmigration minister from2002 to 2003.

• First Syrian refugees could arrive 'in next few weeks,' says Canadian ambassador
• Montreal refugee groups overwhelmed by clothing donations, ask for other goods
• Syrian refugees get new textbooks, more tutoring thanks to McGill students

In a document presented to city council, Dorais'ssalaryis justified as includingvacation pay and compensation for not taking part in a pension plan.

The document says Dorais has a "long track record" in immigration, which includes six years in Citizenship and Immigration Canadaand experience with Kosovar refugees in 1999.

Reactionto the appointment wasswift, not only for the salary figure, but also for passing over municipal employees who could also have donethe job.

"We have more than 20,000 employees in Montreal. Are we telling them that no one is qualified enough to coordinate the arrival of the refugees? That makes no sense at all," said Guillaume Lavoie, a ProjetMontralcity councillor and the Opposition's spokesman for finance and government relations.

"On other hand, we're asking Montrealers and tens of organizations to volunteer their time and money, and the guyat theend of the table is making $1,800 a day."

A union of municipal professionals said it's looking into ways to oppose the move. The syndicat des professionnelles et professionnels municipaux de Montral claims someone already in the city payroll could have handled the task.