Members of the National Assembly abolished an attendance bonus of $125 per day last week following a pushback from Prime Minister François Legault, who had initially defended it.
The members of the Bureau of the National Assembly (BAN), where all parties are represented, adopted a proposal on this subject on Thursday, the institution indicated.
Spokesperson Béatrice Zacharie affirmed that this decision will be made public on Tuesday when it is tabled in the House.
“The decision to abolish the attendance allowance was adopted by the Office of the National Assembly,” she said.
The duty revealed last September that MPs would obtain a bonus of $125 per day for their participation at the end of August in the study of a bill in parliamentary committee before the official return of parliament, scheduled for mid-September.
This bonus, in force for decades, was in addition to a 30% increase in MPs’ pay, which sparked controversy when it was adopted in June. Voted by the deputies, it increased the basic allowance of elected officials from $101,561 to $131,766.
Mr. Legault initially defended maintaining the $125 bonus but the opposition parties expressed a contrary opinion, forcing the Prime Minister to review his position.
The CAQ parliamentary wing confirmed to Duty that its representatives submitted a proposal to abolish this bonus on Thursday during a meeting of the BAN, the equivalent of the board of directors of the National Assembly.
Last year, an overall budget of $75,000 was dedicated to paying 600 attendance bonuses to eligible MPs, compared to $67,250 in 2020-2021 and $74,000 in 2019-2020.