It is necessary to raise the salaries of elected officials to attract quality candidates, according to the Legault government, which will table a bill on Thursday to increase the remuneration of deputies of the National Assembly by $ 30,000.
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“Certainly, having a competitive salary makes it possible to recruit quality candidates. I must admit that during the last election campaign, there were candidates that we had approached who declined the invitation due to the salary that was offered, ”revealed on Wednesday the chief government whip, Éric Lefebvre. .
It should be noted that last February, the Office of the National Assembly (BAN) mandated a committee – made up of former MPs Lise Thériault (PLQ) and Martin Ouellet, as well as a human resources specialist – to review the MPs’ salaries.
- Listen to the provincial and federal political column with Antoine Robitaille, host of the show Là-Haut sur la colline on QUB radio, and Philippe-Vincent Foisy, host of the morning show on QUB radio, among other things on the subject of the remuneration of deputies of the National Assembly, at the microphone of Benoit Dutrizac via QUB-radio :
The initiative then enjoyed the support of the Caquists and the Liberals. Solidarity had opposed it, and the PQ had had no voice in the matter, having no place in the BAN.
Although Quebec MPs already earn more than their counterparts in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, the committee recommended increasing their base allowance from $101,561 to $131,766 per year. And if we take into account their expense allowance, their base salary would increase to $169,950.
Nor did the Thériault-Ouellet report recommend any changes to the generous pension plan for MNAs, which has no equivalent anywhere else.
The CAQ bill should essentially repeat the content of this report. In the corridors of parliament, most of the CAQ deputies who were questioned confined themselves to pointing out that it was not the salary that brought them into politics.
- Listen to the chronicle of Elsie Lefebvre, political analyst and columnist at JDM at the microphone of Richard Martineau via QUB-radio :
The Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, considers for his part that it is “legitimate” to be concerned about the remuneration of elected officials. And when asked if a raise in salary will make a difference in his case, he replies: “No, but I’m not a normal case here.”
Then, when asked if he himself was going to refuse his salary increase, Pierre Fitzgibbon said: “I follow the party line”.
In the current state of things, the government will be able to adopt its bill without the support of the opposition parties, as it has more than two-thirds of the deputies. And it must be added that the Liberals said they were in “agreement with the principle” of the Thériault-Ouellet report.
Québec solidaire is of the opposite opinion. Party spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois reiterated his opposition to the salary increase on Wednesday. “I think it lacks respect for the people we represent,” he breathed, saying he was uncomfortable that the deputies were “judges and parties” in this file.
PQ MP Pascal Bérubé also expressed unease “as much in form as in substance” with the project to increase the remuneration of deputies, but he did not rule out that his political party supports the bill. He said he felt “rushed” by the deputies of the CAQ, who would put pressure to pass this bill.