Bureaucrats at Halifax City Hall are looking into whether defeated councillors are entitled to severance packages after losing an election.

A staff report is being prepared and the city won't comment on it until it goes before council.

Dawn Sloane was a Halifax councillor for 12 years before losing in the last election.

“As a person who didn't have any severance or any kind of aid after I was unelected, it was very difficult,” said Sloane.

While she doesn't qualify, councillor Gloria McCluskey says other councillors pay into a pension that can provide a cushion should they not get re-elected.

“It’s nobody's fault if you get turfed,” said McCluskey. “I don’t think you're entitled to a severance even if you've been there for 23 years like I have.”

Federal and provincial politicians currently receive severance, but public opinion seems divided on whether municipal politicians deserve the same.

“If you choose not to go back for another term, then that's your own personal choice,” said one Halifax resident.

“We're all working right so we should be treated like employees, I think,” said another resident.

If councillors do vote in favour of severance, they wouldn't be alone. While the policies differ, many other municipalities across Canada allow city councillors to collect some sort of allowance or severance.

Sloane says city councils pay into the Canadian Federation of Municipalities and it should be that body that oversees a severance plan for councils country-wide.

“They say that you're self-employed but you're paid by the municipality and you're elected by the people, so I think there should be some kind of severance,” said Sloane. “But again, it should be done by a different body, not the council itself.”

But McClusky says it would be taxpayers footing the bill.

“We have people out there today who can't even get in a pension plan because employment is not that secure anymore, so for us to go out to residents and ask them to pay a severance, no,” she said. 

There is no timeline for report’s completion.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kelly Linehan.