Quebec legislators mulling giving themselves hefty pay hike

The Quebec government is considering a bill that couldsee members of the legislature get a substantial increase in theirbase salary and make them the country's best-paid provincialpoliticians.

The proposal is essentially the result of recommendations in areport from retired Supreme Court justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubonhow to improve their pay conditions.

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Under the plan, the base salary would climb to $140,000 from$90,000, although the hike would kick in at the earliest in 2018,andonly if the bill passes unanimously in the national assembly.

Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier argues the eye-poppingsalary numbers wouldn't mean an additional burden on taxpayers,because politicians will assume responsibility for funding a greatershare of their pension plan.

"There are savings of $400,000 yearly some $4 million over 10years," Fournier said.

Fournier says eliminating $16,000 in tax-exempt earnings,boosting the share of politicians' pension contributions to 41 percent from 21 per cent, cutting certain allowances and making changesto collective insurance would offset any such pay hike.

But Quebec's proposed move comes amid austerity measures and deepcuts that have affected the public as well as during tense labournegotiations with government employees.

Additionally, some legislators in other provinces such as Alberta, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick voted to freeze their
salaries in 2015 or actually reduced them.

Opposition parties against pay increase

Opposition parties in Quebec City say the optics of a raise forpoliticians are not good, with Parti Qubcois house leader BernardDrainville calling the idea "indecent."

"How could members of the national assembly justify increasingtheir salary when teachers and nurses and other members of thepublic service are being offered so little?" he said.

"I'm afraid the taxpayer is not going to put much stock in theconclusions of the report and all they're going to do is look at thehefty increase in the current context."

Right now, the $90,000 number puts Quebec in the middle of thepack in terms of base pay. Four Canadian jurisdictions have salariesof more than $100,000, with the highest-paid provincial politiciansbeing in Alberta, at $127,000.

The Coalition for Quebec's Future argues the bill doesn't respectthe results of a 2014 vote in the legislature when officialsvotedthey should pay 50 per cent of their pension contributions, with thepublic assuming the other half.

"We've adopted laws in the last few months, particularly in themunicipal world, where employees are responsible for 50 per cent oftheir pension," said Benoit Charette, the Coalition's critic fordemocratic reform. "We said it's nonsense to apply sacrifices toothers that we are not prepared to place on ourselves."

In December, the legislature voted to do away with transitionbonuses for assembly members who depart mid-term, with the exceptionfor those who leave for health reasons.

The move was prompted by the departure of several politicians whowalked away with a hefty bonus despite choosing to quit.