The deputies of Québec solidaire will reveal the amounts of the donations they will make to community organizations to mitigate their salary increases. The elected members of the National Assembly are expected to adopt a bill on Tuesday afternoon that will increase their remuneration by 30%.
“We are going to give this increase, with different terms, different amounts. But there is one thing that is certain, it is that we will do it transparently, as we have always done, ”said MP Manon Massé on Tuesday.
Québec solidaire opposes Bill 24, which proposes to increase the base salary of elected officials from $101,561 to $131,766. The party initially declared that its elected officials would refuse this increase. He then qualified his position to affirm that the elected members of his caucus would be free to accept, or not, the increase to which they oppose.
Once this increase is in their pocket, the solidarity workers will be able to share it, to the extent of their choice, with organizations in their constituencies. The amounts of their donations will then be shared with the public, said Ms. Massé.
“Each and everyone will discuss this, will make their choices, but we, what we tell you, is that at the end of the day, there will be the discount of this amount at different heights and that it’s going to be seamless,” she promised.
Different approaches
Last week, the solidarity Vincent Marissal told the Duty that he would retain part of the proposed increase. His colleague Andrés Fontecilla meanwhile indicated that he would give more than half of a possible increase and keep the difference. Manon Massé, Sol Zanetti, Alexandre Leduc, Alejandra Zaga Mendez and Ruba Ghazal have pledged to give back all of this bonus.
The deputies of the Parti Québécois agreed to pocket only part of the increase in remuneration. They will only accept the equivalent of what will be granted to public sector workers.
For their part, the elected members of the Liberal Party of Quebec support the increase in remuneration. In their opinion, this constitutes a “salary catch-up” compared to the salaries of certain civil servants of the Quebec State.
“I hear it’s going to happen. […] we have reached the final adoption stage, I believe,” said Liberal leader Marc Tanguay on Tuesday morning. “Without mixing up all the questions, […] we are going to do our job and we are going to pass the laws, including this law in particular, ”he also replied to a journalist who asked him if it was appropriate to vote on this increase at a time when forest fires are ravaging Quebec and that the arrival of the 1er July brings the housing crisis back to the fore.