An independent two-person committee is recommending that New Brunswick MLAs get a raise.
The finished report recommends that the base salary of MLAs rise to $93,126 on April 1,2023, from the $85,000 they receive right now — an increase of 9.5 per cent.
The report also calls for the salary of the premier to be double the base salary of MLAs at $186,252, an increase of 13.5 per cent from the current $164,000 collected by Premier Blaine Higgs.
If accepted, the raise would be the first for MLAs since 2008.
Higgs says he has yet to read the report, but adds that it’s likely time for the pay freeze to end.
“It became a government program every year to just say zero increase for MLAs and elected members and that’s been happening since 2008,” he said.
“So should that continue like that? No, I don’t think it should continue like that, I think it should be comparable to what everyone else achieves.”
The premier and cabinet ministers received a raise in April of this year when they allowed wage restraint legislation to expire, boosting the executive council top up back to what it was in 2015. Minister salary top-ups rose to $52,614 from $47,353 and the premier’s salary went from $67,150 to $79,000.
In recommending a raise for the premier, the report says: “As heads of governments, Premiers are expected to be on top of every issue and know the ‘hot files’ on the plate of every Minister. These are highly accountable expectations. Heads of governments take vacations, but do not get days off.”
It also said: “Few executives would accept these working conditions for what taxpayers expect to pay.”
The salaries of ministers and the speaker would be set at 66.6 per cent of the premier’s salary, while the leader of the official opposition would get 70 per cent and the government house leader would get the same amount as the premier.
Members of parliament make $189,500 per year and the prime minister makes double that, with $379,000.
N.B. lawmakers paid second-lowest in country
The report, written by retired judge Margaret Larlee and lawyer G. Robert Basque, notes that New Brunswick lawmakers receive the second-lowest salary in the country — behind only Prince Edward Island — and the lack of a raise since 2008 has placed them in “an unfair position.”
The raise is equivalent to the amount of GDP growth since 2008 and the report recommends that future increases be tied to non-unionized employees and managers in the civil service who currently get a yearly increase of two per cent.
Asked how he thinks New Brunswickers may feel about the recommended raise on the heels of N.B. Power’s request to boost rates by 8.9 per cent next year, Higgs says it’s not fair to draw a comparison between the two.
“There hasn’t been any change in MLA compensation since 2008,” he said.
“So I don’t think you can compare it in isolation, look over 14 years and say what did the average salary of everyone else get in 14 years.”
On top of N.B. Power’s rate increase application, New Brunswickers also received their property assessments for the year, with many seeing large jumps in their property’s value and therefore the amount they may have to pay in taxes.
Liberal leader Susan Holt said a raise for lawmakers would be a tough pill for many in the province to swallow, but says she also wants to be able to attract the best possible candidates to run for the party.
“It absolutely merits review and I think a process should be put in place where there is a regular a predictable amount that salaries change by, the same as municipal councils and the same for other folks and we’re not put in this conflicted position of trying to vote on our own pay,” she said.
Holt told reporters that she receives $3,750 biweekly from the New Brunswick Liberal Association, working out to an annual salary of $97,500. Since she’s not an MLA she doesn’t receive the top up given to the leader of the official opposition.
Green MLA Kevin Arseneau said his caucus doesn’t think it needs a raise.
“If you’re getting into politics for the salary, stay home, if you’re getting into it for the convictions that you want to push, I think that’s the kind of people we need in here,” he said.
The Greens are pleased to see constituency budgets would also be boosted to $75,000 and the pay for constituency assistants bumped to $25/hr for a 36.5 hour workweek.
The report goes on to recommend that committee members receive $125 per day for committee meetings and that chairs receive $200.
It also recommends that a “study be undertaken to compare the cost and benefits of electric vehicles vs. the cost of continuing to compensate MLAs for their travel by the kilometre.”
In order for the changes to occur, several legislative changes would need to be passed by April 1, 2023.