Even if they already earn more money than the deputies of the other provincial legislative assemblies in the country, the elected members of the National Assembly deserve a salary increase of $30,000 per year, according to the committee responsible for studying the question.
This is the conclusion of the report of the working group composed of former Liberal minister Lise Thériault, former PQ MP Martin Ouellet, and a human resources specialist, submitted to the Blue Room on Wednesday.
Following this recommendation, the basic annual allowance for MNAs would increase from $139,745 to $169,950, an amount that includes an expense allowance of $38,184.
The committee also suggests increasing the prime minister’s base salary, which is currently $208,200, to $270,120. The remuneration of ministers would go from $177,732 to $230,591. If they want to act on these opinions, the deputies will have to pass a law.
When we compare…
During the presentation of the report, Mr.me Thériault expressed that in her view this is an “acceptable minimum” for the remuneration of deputies.
However, elected officials in Quebec already earn more than their counterparts in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia.
Lise Thériault explained this situation by the fact that Quebec MNAs have to consider more issues, including police services, housing and daycare services, compared to elected officials from other provinces. “There’s a workload that MPs have that other MPs in other provinces don’t have,” she said.
In fact, the task force justifies its recommendation to increase the base salary of elected officials by 30% by the workload, the atypical schedule, and the security issues that the deputies of the National Assembly must face.
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Faintness
The authors of the report also recognize that the revision of the remuneration of elected officials is a “complex and delicate exercise”, and that “parliamentarians themselves openly mention a discomfort in deciding on their own remuneration”, because of “the appearance of conflict of interest that this entails”.
“It’s hard to be judge and party, recognized the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon. I have chaired several compensation committees for public companies, and I think we should leave it to third parties to look at what we do and assess whether we are over- or underpaid.
The elected officials of Québec solidaire are also opposed to the increase proposed by the “review committee launched by the CAQ”, and they ask, “out of respect for the population”, to resume the process from the beginning “with a independent and binding committee”.
In the morning, the spokesperson for QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, also expressed that his current salary seems sufficient to him. “Me, I think that I am not to be pitied as a deputy”, he said.
Base salary of elected officials in Canada
- House of Commons (Ottawa): $194,600
- AB: $120,936
- Ontario: $116,500
- British Columbia: $115,046
- Quebec (currently): $139,745*
- Quebec (according to the committee’s proposal): $169,950*
*Including expense allowance. The National Assembly is the only provincial legislature where an expense allowance is paid to parliamentarians.
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