UCP committee members vote to increase Alberta MLA pay, government caucus funding
Both changes were approved by the committee via five-to-four votes which were cast along party lines
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A committee of Alberta MLAs has voted to increase their pay as well as boost funding from the public to the United Conservative Party’s (UCP) government caucus.
The changes were voted on early Thursday by the members of the Special Standing Committee on Members’ Services, made up of six UCP MLAs and four members of the Opposition New Democrats (NDP).
The pay raises are retroactive to the start of this year and are tied to the average public service rate increase, amounting to around 2.2 per cent, though that figure will vary slightly each year.
Committee chair and government whip Shane Getson defended the pay bump for MLAs as reasonable, noting the increase was the first since 2013 and that their wages have been frozen since 2019.
“We’re not the feds. It’s a different pay scale. And the folks we have here working as MLAs are like every other common Joe out there making a living,” Getson said in an interview with Postmedia after the committee meeting.
“You want to make sure also, at the same time that you allow good folks to come forward and do this,” he said in reference to attracting quality candidates to politics.
Committee member and Opposition MLA Christina Gray characterized the raise as tone-deaf given the ongoing cost of living crisis.
“Today, the UCP focused on addressing the affordability crisis for politicians,” she said at a news conference after the meeting.
“I know that the UCP majority has no regard for what’s going on with everyday Albertans, and I’m quite comfortable that the Official Opposition could not support those changes.”
Base Alberta MLA compensation is $120,936
MLAs took five per cent pay cuts in both of 2019 and 2015. Their base compensation before the raise is listed at $120,936, though the government’s 25 cabinet ministers each earn more.
The committee members also voted to boost funding to the UCP’s government caucus to be used for functions including research, communications, and advertising, by around $1.1 million, according to Getson’s estimate.
He told the committee that the UCP’s caucus had been operating in a deficit and that the funding boost would level the proverbial playing field.
“It’s for non-government related items that all MLAs still have to do,” Getson said, adding the funding will “make sure that constituents get the best bang for their buck and get the clear messages that we’re trying to get out there.”
He said that the NDP caucus has just over $4.9 million to work with, or about $1.9 million more than the UCP caucus, in large part because ministers are deemed to be distinct from caucus for funding purposes.
Minus its cabinet ministers, the remaining UCP backbenchers are outnumbered by NDP members 38 to 24.
Gray said the government caucus deserves to receive less than the Opposition caucus given the UCP lost 11 MLAs in the last provincial election, coupled with what she described as a bloated number of cabinet ministers.
“The premise that the two caucuses should have the same budget is false,” she said in the committee meeting.
“That’s not how this is supposed to work. You get funding for the MLAs that you elect and then (cabinet) should be separate.”
Both changes were approved by the committee via five-to-four votes cast along party lines.
They come six weeks after the same committee voted to increase accommodations allowances to MLAs, with the NDP again objecting to those changes.
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