Recently, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) sent a letter to Premier Stelmach offering some advice on how his government could have better handled the issue of MLA compensation.

In a nut shell, we suggested the premier appoint a citizens' assembly consisting of 25 randomly selected Albertans to make recommendations on MLA compensation. This would avoid putting politicians in the difficult position of deciding their own salaries, and it would also be a fair solution for taxpayers.

The premier has yet to act on this advice, even after 1,500 Albertans contacted his office on Friday, June 13th to voice their displeasure about the size of his raise and/or way the raises were taken. This display of unrest dwarfed the regular Friday call volume at the premier's office of "between 50 and 75 calls."

Nevertheless, the CTF is back with more advice.

This advice, however, is not for the premier, as he should have no say in his own compensation, but rather for the yet-to-be-formed citizens' assembly.

The first and most important piece of advice would be to make MLA compensation fully transparent.

As it stands right now, if an Albertan wanted to know how much a backbench MLA earns, the Legislative Assembly website would lead them to believe MLAs make $78,138.

The problem is that it's not really true.

For starters, one-third of the base pay for MLAs is tax-free. This alone means that regular Albertans would have to earn $91,309, to have the same take-home income as the base pay for MLAs.

Second, every backbench MLA collects extra pay for serving on various committees.

For example, newly elected backbench PC MLA, Carl Benito, (who has committed to donate his salary to charity) will actually earn the equivalent of $141,654 for serving on two all-party standing committees, one all-party field policy committee and one PC-only cabinet policy committee.

Whether this is adequate compensation should be up for debate by the citizens' assembly, but it's clearly a far cry from the $78,138 most Albertans would assume Mr. Benito will make.

Moreover, until recently the premier, cabinet minister, opposition leaders and the speaker all were expected to sit on committees as part of their extra compensation ($81,312 for the premier, $63,912 for cabinet ministers, the speaker and the official opposition leader). Now they also receive additional "committee pay" of $42,000 to $54,000 per year.

In order to make the compensation more transparent, the CTF would recommend eliminating all tax-free allowances and committee pay in favour of a one-size-fits-all, transparent salary for all backbench MLAs. If, on average, backbench MLAs make the equivalent of $135,000, just pay them one fully-taxable salary of $135,000.

Furthermore, politicians should have to pay taxes on all of their salary, just like the people who elected them. It's an outdated political perk from the 1940's and it should be eliminated.

Again, if the citizens' assembly decides the premier should indeed be the highest paid in Canada, then he should receive that amount as one, lump-sum, fully-taxable, transparent salary.

How much we pay our politicians might turn into a very heated debate around the table of a citizens' assembly. But it's doubtful too many citizens would argue with making the way we pay our politicians finally transparent.

By: Scott Hennig
Posted: June 16, 2008
Topic: Alberta

Contact the regional director Scott Hennig for further information.

Type: Commentary

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