BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci says a 25 percent pay hike proposed by his government this week will attract quality candidates to run for provincial office.
“Right now, for a young person who is starting out and who may have a good job already, there would be no incentive for that person to go into politics because he or she may have a family to take care of,” he says.
"Part of this (pay increase), obviously, is ensuring we can attract quality people.”
Queen’s Park politicians are expected to pass legislation by Christmas that would boost base salaries for MPPs from $88,771 to just over $110,000 a year.
They will also see a doubling of their RRSP allowance from five percent to 10 percent of their salary.
Salaries for cabinet ministers such as Bartolucci, the Minister of Northern Development and Mines, will increase from $126,321 to $157,633, while the salary for the premier will rise from $159,166 to $198,620.
Seventy-eight Liberal and Conservative MPPs voted in favour of the pay raise this week during the bill’s first reading, and four New Democrats voted against the plan.
The move to increase salaries for members of the legislature came after a report by integrity commissioner Coulter Osbourne who said low pay for Ontario politicians may be making it hard to attract quality candidates.
He recommended MPPs receive a salary closer to that of federal politicians, who receive base salaries of $147,000 a year.
“The integrity commissioner said that as this discrepancy grows (between provincial and federal politicians), the provincial government becomes a farm team for the federal government. Federal parties can attract members away from the provincial jurisdiction,” says Bartolucci.
He points out that Jim Flaherty, who used to be the finance minister under former Ontario premier Mike Harris, left provincial politics to run for federal office last year. He is now Canada’s finance minister.
Bartolucci says he’ll accept the pay increase even though the legislation allows him to opt out of the plan. “I believe the office of MPP is worth the pay,” he says.
Nickel Belt MPP Shelley Martel says she’s against the pay increase, but she and other New Democrat MPPs don’t have the power to stop it.
She’s not going to opt out of her pay increase; instead, she and her husband, Ontario NDP party leader Howard Hampton say they may donate the extra money to local charities.
“I think it’s unacceptable that the Liberals, in bed with the Conservatives, are going to ram through this bill in the dark of night, before Christmas, in the hopes that the public won’t notice,” Martel says.
“At the same time, the government says they have no money to deal with people who are working full time on minimum wage, and still under the poverty level, and people who are disabled and they are worse off now that they were under the Conservatives.”
The argument that a larger salary is needed to attract quality provincial candidates is “bogus,” she says. “Do you know what is ironic about what the government is saying? If I was a government member, and I listened to the minister who introduced this bill yesterday, I would feel like I just received a slap in the face,” says Martel.
