Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province’s “tough” cost of living is one of the reasons why his government recently handed promotions to three Progressive Conservative MPPs, topping up their salaries by more than $16,000 a year.
The promotions, the premier suggested, are to make up for the “unfair” base salary of $116,000 a year, which was first frozen in 2007 and has been kept in place by successive premiers, including Ford.
Global News was first to reveal that newly elected MPP Tyler Allsopp, who won the Bay of Quinte byelection on Sept. 19, will be promoted to parliamentary assistant to the minister of long-term care.
Political critics have pointed out that while Allsopp has been sworn in, he has yet to step foot inside the Ontario legislature as an elected official, and have questioned whether he’s deserving of a promotion.
Ford made the comments at an unrelated news event in Brockville, Ont., with another of the MPPs recently given the financial boost by the premier.
“Everyone go after politicians, I get it, I don’t need the raise and so on and so forth,” he said.
“But there’s people that get into this job and there’s no public or private sector that has not got raise — and I don’t plan on doing this — all political stripes, since 2007. That’s just not fair. I don’t care if you’re a politician or not — but 2007?”
The freeze has been in place since 2007 and renewed on several occasions, with potential salary bumps tied to balancing the budget. Most recently, in 2022, after unexpectedly balancing the budget, the Ford government brought in legislation to keep MPP pay capped.
At the time, the government said the unexpected balancing of the budget shouldn’t result in more money for MPPs at a time when financial pressures were continuing to bite for the general population.
“While people are struggling due to increasing costs, politicians should not be getting raises,” the government said.
Ford cabinet largest in Ontario history
In recent years, Ford has overseen an ever-growing cabinet and number of parliamentary assistants. Cabinet ministers, associate ministers and parliamentary assistants all receive financial top-ups to their base salary when they’re appointed to their roles.
In a mini-August reshuffle, Ford added a new associate minister to his top table, bringing his cabinet to 37 people, plus parliamentary assistants who do not sit in cabinet. The 37-person cabinet is almost double the 20-person inner circle when Ford first formed government in 2018.
The premier earns an annual salary of $208,974, while cabinet ministers are paid $165,850.65. Associate ministers earn $138,927.60 — a little more than the $133,216.65 paid to parliamentary assistants.
The PCs ran their 2018 campaign focusing on fiscal responsibility, pivoting to massive infrastructure projects and new housing for the 2022 campaign.
But, six years after he campaigned against “reckless spending,” Ford has faced scrutiny over how he has spent public money.
Annual salary reports released earlier in the year showed Ford presides over the most expensive premier’s office in Ontario’s history.
The cost of Ford’s inner circle has been the target of accusations from opposition politicians that he is running a “gravy train” — criticism he used when he was a councillor at city hall — for those loyal to him.
“It’s the gravy train — and it’s getting so big, they might actually have to get a second engine,” Liberal MPP John Fraser told Global News.
“What the premier’s doing is, ‘I’ve got this back door that I can drive you through, and I’ll keep you happy (about salary) that way.’ And that’s what he’s doing, there’s no way we need as many parliamentary assistants as we have, it’s way more than I’ve ever seen. It’s excessive.”
Ford's pension criticism of Jagmeet Singh
Ford’s comments on Friday — simultaneously lamenting the compensation provincial politicians receive and pledging not to change it — come weeks after he repeatedly criticized federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who he claimed would hold off forcing an election until he became eligible for a pension. MPPs in Ontario do not get a pension when they resign or retire.
“There’s nothing more important to these greedy politicians than collecting a pension,” Ford said last month after the NDP-Liberal agreement at the federal level collapsed.
“I’ll be floored, and I’ll stand up here and apologize to all the greedy politicians if he calls the election early. But let’s face it, he wants his pension, he’s not going anywhere … because it’s him and a whole bunch of other politicians who want to grab the taxpayers’ money.”
On Friday, Ford struck a different tone, highlighting the constant nature of a politician’s job and suggesting being underpaid was a non-partisan and cross-party issue.
“And it doesn’t matter if they’re PCs or Liberals or the orange or whatever, these guys work their backs off, that’s all I can tell you,” Ford said. “When you get an elected official and they’re actually doing their job, I guarantee it’s 365 days, 24/7.”