Kevin Laliberte
Editor, Smoky River Express

One can’t help but raise his/her eyebrows in disbelief these days following the exorbitant pay raise endorsement in the Alberta Legislature recently for MLA’s and Premier Ed Stelmach. The decision, which was made in late May after receiving swift approval by the Standing Committee on Members’ Services, will see cabinet ministers pick up a pay increase of 30 per cent and the premier’s salary jump by 34 per cent this year. That breaks down to a pay hike of approximately $42,000 (and no, this is not a typo) for cabinet ministers in addition to a whopping $54,000 increase for Premier Ed Stelmach. Ah, but the frivolous and absurd spending practices don’t end there. Also on the receiving end of the pay hikes are the speaker as well as Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and NDP Leader Brian Mason. Now if this all sounds like a steaming pot of beurocratic witches brew, get this. The NDP Leader voted in favour of the move despite endorsing recent gold-plated severance payments for MLAs – a move which essentially destroys any credibility he and his party may have had in the past towards tight fiscal restraint. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) admonished the two opposition parties in the Alberta Legislature last week for not asking any questions during Question Period regarding the secret 30 per cent cabinet pay hike. Leading the way was direct Scott Hennig, who questioned why the opposition parties remained so tight-lipped on the issue when they had 11 opportunities during Monday’s question period and another 11 opportunities during Tuesday’s question period to hold the government accountable on the pay hikes. He suggested this past week that Premier Stelmach should demand an immediate stop to the MLA pay changes and introduce a transparent, independent review of MLA pay led by a public citizen’s commission. The point that these are randomly selected is very important, Hennig suggests, adding that this group has to be made up of average Albertans – not judges, university professors and former MLAs. Many of the so-called “independent commissions” on political compensation end up being a group of political hacks that do not represent the general public. And he’s absolute correct in that analysis. Citizens’ assemblies have been used in the past by the governments of British Columbia and Ontario to decide electoral reforms. Heck, even juries are chosen from the public at large. This begs the question that if randomly selected citizens are good enough to decide serious issues like murder trials, shouldn’t they be well equipped to handle the job of deciding how and how much to pay our MLAs? As part of this process Premier Stelmach may also want to seriously consider passing legislation which prohibits government from secretly passing pay hikes for themselves behind closed doors. Surely, there is and always will be a clear conflict of interest when you have politicians deciding their own pay grid – a wrong that could be turned into a right through appropriate legislation. Hennig, meanwhile, speaks on behalf of all Albertans by encouraging the premier to contact the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in the future for some free advice before making what he calls “sneaky and underhanded decisions.” It’s something which undoubtedly would have went a long way towards saving the premier and taxpayers more than a few headaches.

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