Premier Legault no longer knows what to invent to justify the $30,000 increase in the salaries of members of the National Assembly, which will make them by far the best paid of all the Canadian provinces.
First, he argued that every father or mother has the right to earn “as much money as possible” to ensure the well-being of their children. A right that public sector workers apparently do not have.
Noting the weakness of his argument, Mr. Legault adjusted the shot. “Let’s not forget that Quebec is a nation, that we have to manage identity powers that other provinces do not have to manage,” he declared, specifying that Quebec elected officials will still remain less paid as members of the House of Commons.
It is true that the Government of Quebec assumes responsibilities in areas, such as language or immigration, which are generally of less concern to the other provinces or which they prefer to leave to the care of the federal government. We could add income tax, which Ottawa collects in full elsewhere than in Quebec.
If the Quebec state and its employees, who are proportionally more numerous than in the other provinces, have more responsibilities, does this mean that the deputies work more? The Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s calendar calls for Members to sit for 94 days in 2023; in the National Assembly, 82 are expected.
Of course, the time devoted to legislative tasks is only part of the work of a Member, who must also ensure a presence in his constituency. He must meet his constituents, whom he must help solve their problems or advance their projects. Not to mention the BBQs, spaghetti dinners and corn roasts.
CAQ whip and MNA for Arthabaska, Éric Lefebvre, justified the $30,000 increase by arguing that he is so busy that he cannot see his mother more than once a year and that his friends no longer bother to call him during the weekend, knowing that he will not have time for them.
“I have 17 municipalities in my riding, and I must have approximately the equivalent of 17 FADOQ clubs [Fédération de l’âge d’or du Québec]. The people from the FADOQ clubs, I see them three, four or five times a year; my own mother, once,” he explained.
There is no doubt that Mr. Lefebvre is completely devoted to his constituents, as his colleagues from all parties surely are, but there is no reason to think that the members of the other provinces are sparing their efforts more.
The National Assembly has 125 deputies, who represent 8.4 million inhabitants. In Queen’s Park, there are 124 for a population of 15.3 million. A Quebec MP therefore represents approximately 67,200 people, while his Ontario counterpart represents just under 123,400. We pity all those Ontario parents who are deprived of the pleasure of seeing their child MP more than once a year.
Obviously, Quebeckers do not buy the Prime Minister’s argument. According to a Léger poll commissioned by Québec solidaire, 74% of them disapprove of the proposed increase. Such a high percentage means that voters of all parties oppose it, including those of the CAQ.
To claim that the government is simply implementing the recommendation of an independent committee made up of a human resources expert and two former members, a Liberal and a PQ, is intellectual dishonesty. How can one qualify as independent a committee whose mandate was defined so narrowly that it excluded components of the remuneration of the deputies as important as the innumerable indemnities and the exceptionally advantageous pension plan from which they benefit?
Hearing Mr. Legault serve the argument of the nation was equally heartbreaking. The CAQ deputies want what seems to them the best of both worlds: a salary worthy of a sovereign state, on the condition that Quebec remains a simple province.
La Fontaine’s fable about the frog who wanted to make himself as big as an ox immediately comes to mind.
“Every bourgeois wants to build like the great lords,
Every little prince has ambassadors,
Every marquis wants to have pages. »
We know what happened to him.