MLAs getting 1.5 per cent wage hike
Prince Edward Island MLAs are getting a pay raise in 2018, thanks to a decision of the independent body that reviews and approves MLA compensation changes.
The Indemnities and Allowances Commission decided on a 1.5 per cent increase to the base salary for MLAs and to the additional salary top-ups most MLAs receive for roles they play in the legislature and cabinet, effective April 1, 2018.
Base pay for MLAs will rise to $72,569; while cabinet ministers and Opposition Leader James Aylward will be paid $123,280 and Premier Wade MacLauchlan will make $151,384.
Additional salaries and allowances are also paid to the Speaker, deputy speaker, government and Opposition house leaders, government and Opposition whips and all non-ministerial government MLAs who are members executive council committees – which currently includes all Liberal MLAs.
But Opposition MLA Steven Myers says he believes the raises are far too generous.
He has long been a vocal critic of MLA raises, even once intro- ducing a private member’s bill proposing to freeze MLA salaries until the budget was balanced.
Next year’s 1.5 per cent increase may not seem like a large increase at face value, but as salaries grow every year, so, too, does the value of that 1.5 per cent, Myers said.
“The increase to a base salary of an MLA is $1,200 and for a cabinet minister it’s much higher than that,” he said.
“Every year that you get oneand-a-half or two per cent, that gets compounded every time you get a raise so 1.5 per cent is going to be a bigger and bigger dollar figure each time.”
Cabinet ministers will soon make twice the salary of a backbench MLAs as a result of this, he added, which creates two tiers of MLAs, Myers argues.
“Government really needs to slow it down.”
Opposition MLA Sidney MacEwen says he thinks the money that will go toward MLA salary raises this year could be better spent elsewhere.
“I’d much rather see that money go to fix the Mount Stewart School roof,” he said.
Meanwhile, the base salary for an MLA is more than twice the median individual income of Islanders, which was $31,744 in 2015, according to latest available data from Statistics Canada.
As part of its decision, the commission pointed out MLAs in the other two other Maritime provinces are paid higher salaries.
Island MLAs make 82 per cent of the average of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
The commission also noted that for three of the last eight years, MLA pay was frozen at 2009 levels from 2010 to 2012. Also, MLAs in P.E.I. are not paid for committee work, as some are in N.B. and N.S.
The commission stated its intent to review the compensation of MLAs for serving on legislative committees and plans to review allowances and expenses provided to members of the legislative assembly.
The recommendations of the commission are binding.