Tie MHA salaries to civil servant contracts, committee recommends

A House of Assembly committee is recommending that salaries for MHAs in Newfoundland and Labrador be tied to civil servant contracts.

Themembers' compensation review committee recommended on Tuesday that any future raises for elected officials should match "the average negotiated percentage adjustments" contained in four public servant collective agreements.

The four agreements are the General Service contract, the Health Professionals contract, the Registered Nurses' Union contract and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Association contract.

• MHA salaries frozen until at least 2015

Sandra Burke,who chaired the committee, saidno MHAs or members of the public asked for members to get a raise, but some argued there needs to be a mechanism in place to allow for increases.

The current $95,000 salary hasn't changed since 2008.

"In making our recommendations on salary, we have considered the significant responsibilities of an MHA, our current economic climate as set out in the provincial budget in April 2016, as well as comments made by informed members of the public," the committee wrote in its report.

If the report is adopted by the House management commission, the politicians who approve public sector pay raises would also benefit themselves.

That conflict was considered by the commission, but Speaker of the House of Assembly Tom Osborne saidthis new mechanism won't provide an incentive for politicians to give bigger raises to civil servants.

"Forty individuals are not going to put the need of 40 individuals ahead of the need of tens of thousands of public servants," he said.

"No insult intended, but it's a ridiculous concept."

Poorer pension

The committee is also recommending changes to the MHA pension plan and severancethat will lead to smaller payouts for former politicians.

It recommends that MHA pensions be no longer indexed to inflation.

MHAs will also no longer be able to use time from previous public sector jobs to increase the size of their pension, and will now only receive a pension after they turn 60. Currently,they can start collecting at age55.

The severance payoutsto help MHAs transition after they leave politics will also be smaller.

These rules would apply to new MHAs, while existing members would be grandfathered in under previous rules.

No Christmas or birthday cards

If the recommendations areadopted, MHAs will no longer be able to use their allowance to send birthday and Christmas cards to constituents.

The rules around advertising will also be tighter, limiting the size and scope of ads MHAs can place.

"It's our economic climate that we're in," said Sandra Burke, the lawyer who chaired the committee.

"Those types of issues, advertising, and greeting cards, those situations can be better utilized in a newsletter for example with an MHA."

No MHAsattended the release of the report, and all three parties said they would need time to review the recommendations before commenting.