MPS get 1.6-per cent raise, base salary hits $160,200
Pension reform may offset pay increases
OTTAWA — Canada’s members of Parliament are getting a raise for the first time in four years.
Speaker of the House Andrew Scheer sent a memo to members of Parliament on Thursday, just before they returned to their constituencies, informing them their pay will increase by 1.6 per cent in the 2013-14 fiscal year.
That means the base annual salary for all MPs will jump to $160,200, an increase of nearly $2,500, effective April 1.
It’s the first pay increase for MPs since 2009. In 2010, under the Expenditure Restraint Act, the government froze MPs’ salaries through the 2012-13 fiscal year.
It was an austerity measure, as well as a symbolic gesture by elected officials as Canadians dealt with the fallout from the recession.
As a result, MPs have earned a base annual salary of just under $158,000 since 2009. With the new pay hike, the salaries paid to members who have additional responsibilities — such as cabinet ministers, whips, parliamentary secretaries, committee chairs and others — will also increase.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s salary will increase to $320,400, an increase of nearly $5,000. Speaker Scheer, Opposition leader Tom Mulcair and cabinet ministers will see their pay jump to $236,900, a $3,600 increase.
And the new leader of the Liberal Party will earn $214,700, a $3,300 increase.
Scheer’s memo says members’ pay is adjusted each year “based on the index of the average percentage increase in base-rate wages for a calendar year in Canada resulting from major settlements negotiated in the private sector.”
Gregory Thomas, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, decried the timing of the memo, which was sent on a Thursday before a long weekend and the start of a two-week break in House proceedings.
“It’s contemptuous of taxpayers and electors,” he said.
He also noted that the government hasn’t hit the deficit projections they made when the freeze was instituted.
“IT’S CONTEMPTUOUS OF TAXPAYERS AND ELECTORS.” GREGORY THOMAS
“They haven’t come close to hitting their own targets, but they decided to forego the wage freeze and give themselves a raise,” he said.
However, MPs aren’t expected to experience long-term financial gain, due to changes to parliamentary pension rules.
The federal government announced last fall it is overhauling the parliamentary pension plan — including tripling MP contributions and increasing retirement age — after the next election.
Currently, MPs contribute about $11,000 a year each into their own pensions — around 14 per cent of the $76,000 in total annual contributions — while taxpayers cover the remaining $65,000 for each parliamentary pension. But under the changes, MPs will eventually have to contribute 50 per cent to their pensions; about $39,000 by 2017.
Liberal MP John McKay said MPs are “their own worst enemies, and don’t stand up for themselves” when it comes to their pay.
MPs work 70 to 80 hours a week, making sacrifices in their personal and family lives, said McKay, who represents the riding of Scarborough — Guildwood. Many of them forgo higher-paying private sector jobs to do so.
“Anybody who goes into politics doesn’t go into it for the money,” he said. “If you are in it for the money, you should think about doing something else.”