Provincial politicians in Ontario are set to get a 35 per cent pay raise and a new pension plan in a move supported by all parties after a 16-year salary freeze for members at Queen’s Park.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tabled legislation to bring MPP salaries to 75 per cent of their colleagues on Parliament Hill.
Previously, an Ontario MPP earned $116,550 per year. In order to bring them to 75 per cent of a federal MP’s $209,800 salary, they will now earn $157,250. Cabinet ministers will take home $223,909 per year.
Bethlenfalvy said the move was necessary to attract “quality candidates” to run for the provincial legislature and was a “mark of respect for all elected public servants.”
Later, he told reporters it was “right and fair” to make the change.
“MPPs are people too, they have to pay groceries, they have to pay rent, (spend) time away from their families,” Bethlenfalvy said. “This is for public servants; we are public servants.”
Representatives of the government, the NDP, the Liberals, the Greens and Ontario’s only independent MPP all stood together on Thursday to endorse the move.
John Vanthof of the NDP agreed with the government that the move was necessary to recruit better candidates from the private sector.
“When we’re looking for other candidates, qualified people to actually direct the future of this province, for most of them, they have to take a huge pay cut to come here,” he said.
He praised the premier for “having the guts” to introduce potentially controversial pay-increase legislation.
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Liberal MPP John Fraser said the increase would help attract “the best and the brightest” to come to Queen’s Park.
The bill passed first, second and third reading within only a few minutes of being tabled. It is set to receive royal assent and become law on the same day.
The increase will be retroactive to the most recent provincial election.
It will cost the government around $6 million in new payroll expenses for the current financial year, officials said.
Among the salary increases:
- MPPs will go from $116,550 to $157,350
- The premier will go from $208,974 to $282,129
- The leader of the opposition will go from $180,886 to $244,207
- Ministers will go from $165,851 to $223,909
- Associate ministers will go from $138,928 to $187,561
- Parliamentary assistants will go from $133,217 to $179,851
The changes will also create a new pension plan for Ontario MPPs who have served in the legislature for at least six years.
The pension would be calculated partly based on a three-year best average salary and include contributions from MPPs.
An example drawn up by Ministry of Finance officials showed a 49-year-old MPP who had served for six years would receive an annual initial pension of $33,425 if they retired at 65.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the raise was poorly timed, given the growing cost of living for people in Ontario — and the government’s latest projections of a half-trillion dollars in debt.
“While families are tightening their belts and the province sinks deeper into debt, Ontario politicians are stuffing their own pockets,” said Nicolas Gagnon, communications director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “They’re voting themselves a raise and a taxpayer-funded pension and they expect Ontarians to just smile and pay for it.”
Within the Progressive Conservative caucus, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also found himself under pressure to address compensation.
Shortly before the 2022 election, the premier made a promise to his caucus, telling them a re-elected PC government would revisit the issue of MPP salaries and pensions.
While the pledge was never made public, the promise invigorated the premier’s caucus, who had long advocated for reform and argued, internally, that the base salary of an MPP didn’t align with the responsibilities and demands of their time.
While the issue appeared to fall off the premier’s radar after he won re-election in 2022, MPPs remained persistent and have raised the question directly with the Premier on several occasions.
Multiple sources told Global News that during caucus meetings before the 2025 election, the premier had promised to fix the wage and pension issue, but only after the next provincial-wide poll.
Meanwhile, MPPs quietly griped to Global News before the last election that the issue had been front and centre for more than 20 PC caucus members who had weighed whether to run in the next provincial election without guarantees that salaries and pensions would be addressed.
Ford suggested the change was coming at his first news conference following the election.
“It’s terrible,” he said, referring to the fact that the last raise MPPs received was in 2008. “They have no pension. I don’t want to sound like a bleeding heart for politicians, but come on, folks, these guys work their backs off.”
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