MLAs in Saskatchewan are not going to be seeing a 3.5 per cent pay decrease yet. Opposition members of the Board of Internal Economy boycotted the meeting Wednesday morning.
The Board is responsible for setting MLA salaries.
NDP caucus chair David Forbes said he and NDP house leader Warren McCall didn’t attend the meeting because there isn’t a big enough cut coming to government compensation.
“We will accept a pay-cut for us. What we won’t accept is Sask. Party Ministers dodging their own responsibility and punishing Saskatchewan people for Sask. Party mismanagement, scandal, and waste,” said Forbes.
“We will not rubber stamp a government scheme that would include even more cuts across our schools, hospitals, and the workers who provide the services Saskatchewan families rely on.”
READ MORE: Premier Wall announces plan to save 3.5 per cent across public sector pay starting with MLAs
With Forbes and McCall absent from the meeting, the board was unable to vote of the 3.5 per cent pay reduction for MLAs.
Instead of spreading the 3.5 per cent compensation reduction across the entire public sector, the NDP are demanding the government reduce ministerial bonuses by 20 per cent and reduce the amount of MLAs by five in the next election.
“Just yesterday, NDP interim Leader Trent Wotherspoon said the NDP would support the MLA pay cut,” said Jeremy Harrison, one of the Saskatchewan Party government members on the Board. “Now, the NDP have gone on strike to block this pay cut. It’s absolutely ridiculous. They need do their job and support this pay cut, which their Leader said they would do.”
In attempts to find a 3.5 per cent reduction across the rest of the public sector, Premier Brad Wall said Tuesday that the government would work with the unions through collective bargaining to find the savings.
This could be done through a variety of methods, including a pay decrease or unpaid days off.
Twenty-five of the province’s 40 collective agreements are either open or expire at the end of March. Current agreements will not be renegotiated until contracts expire.
“The Sask. Party is playing games and trying to pretend they are taking the same hit as everyone else,” said Forbes. “A 3.5 per cent cut for an MLA or a Premier who has been accepting tens of thousands of dollars every year in top up from his party’s wealthy out of province donors, is very different than a pay cut or jobs loss for a single mother, a senior, or a family struggling to get by. It’s wrong for the Sask. Party to play coy while attacking Saskatchewan people like this and we are going to stand for it.”
The base pay for an MLA in Saskatchewan is $96,183. A 3.5 per cent reduction would make the new base MLA salary $92,817.
Below is the letter that the Sask. NDP sent to Member and Corporate Services in regards to the 3.5% salary cut:
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