Re Saskatchewan MLAs’ wages and wage increase. … The MLAs’ base wage was $46,168 per year plus $7,500 per diem or living allowance. The per diem is based on $155 per day for out-of-Regina MLAs and $94 per day for Regina MLAs when the legislature is in session.
Our area MLA, Vi Stanger, because Roy Romanow knows he can always count on her for support, was given the added responsibility of deputy party whip. She receives an extra $6,000 per year for that job. This is public knowledge and I hope it’s not taken as one of those “scurrilous personal attacks.”
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On top of the base salary, they receive tax-free telephone allowance and constituency office allowance. The MLAs could also receive $75 for serving on various provincial committees.
In brief, the McDowell Commission recommended that members must table annual reports to the legislature showing expense amounts paid out and to whom; the annual expense accounts reports be open for viewing by the general public at the constituency offices; caucus grants be audited annually and funds not used be returned to the province; the per diem be part of the salary and be taxable. These are good, sensible recommendations …
The new pay schedule was based on the legislature sitting 70 days per year. MLA salaries are now going to be $55,000 per year plus $4,500 per diem for out-of-Regina MLAs. They will still have all of the above-mentioned allowances.
Then politics entered into the picture. The McDowell system is not implemented until July 1. This allows the MLAs to collect $155 per day or about $4,300 because the legislature is now in session. After July 1, the legislature will probably not be in session, yet the MLAs will be paid at the new rate, which includes the per diem.
In other words, they will be paid extra even though they are not in session.
If you are paid extra for doing a job and you don’t do it, how can you not call it a wage increase? I may have excelled at recess when I was in school, but I know a wage increase when I see one.
-Victor Hult,
Waseca, Sask.
