Members of Parliament and senators will
get a $3,000 increase Friday in their base
salary, while cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
will receive a larger raise – at a time when Canadians
are struggling with stagnant wages and rising unemployment.
The wage hike of 1.8 per cent for MPs and 2.1 per cent for
senators is about four times what the federal government has
offered public sector unions and executives in the federal public
service.................
Federal legislation automatically gives MPs an annual pay hike on
April 1 that’s equal to the average percentage increase negotiated
by unions with 500 or more employees in the private sector. The data
are published by Employment and Social Development Canada.
The pay hike for MPs is nearly double the average increase of one
per cent that public sector unions negotiated in jurisdictions across
Canada in 2015.
MPs have the option of freezing their own salaries through federal
legislation, but the government has decided not to do so. Salaries
for MPs were frozen at 2009-10 levels until the end of the 2012-13
fiscal year under legislation introduced and passed by the former
Conservative government...............
Since the MP wage freeze was lifted in 2013, the base salary of
members of Parliament has increased eight per cent, from
$157,731.
Taxpayers will cough up an extra $25.4 million for an increase of
20 per cent to office budgets for MPs and House of Commons officers
that also takes effect Friday.
“I don’t think most Canadians have much sympathy for the
notion that MPs need a pay hike, considering they already earn far
more than the average Canadian.” said Aaron Wudrick, federal
director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
And he would be right about that, why is it that their
compensation is based upon average PRIVATE sector UNION wages when by
far the greatest number of taxpayers are paid far less than union
rates and rarely if ever see raises of any amount. Next thing you
know they will want to be paid for two weeks of sick days just like
or poor hard done by teachers .....oh wait, they get paid whether
they show up or not don’t they Mr Harper?
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3 comments:
Thought-provoking, Rural, but I would rather see this wage hike for our political leaders matched by measures that enhance the lives of the many among us who earn minimum wages or are precariously employed. Without such corresponding measures, the increases for our parliamentarians can only smack of hypocrisy.
It will be interesting Lorne, with the long form census reinstated this year, to see what the “average” Canadian is earning and how much the gap between those families at the bottom end and those who seem to think that $100,000+ is 'normal' has increased!
We have allowed our governments way to much power Rural, including, through legislation to give themselves raises.We need to figure out how to curtail that power and put it in the hands of Canadians. It is our government and we need to start taking ownership and to stop whoever we vote in doing what's best for themselves. Election reform? We need a complete rehaul of our government.
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