Premier and MLA pay cut was about ‘cover’

By Letter to the Editor on November 4, 2019.

Premier Jason Kenney is slated to receive more than $120,000 in annual MP pension pay at age 55. He is presently 51.

An all-party member services committee agreed unanimously to cut all elected members pay by 5%, with an extra 5% cut to the salary of Kenney to fulfill a campaign commitment he made en route to the party winning a majority government in April.

The changes mean that Kenney now takes home about $186,000 a year, while cabinet members get $181,000 and rank-and-file legislature members get $121,000. Opposition NDP members on the committee voted for the cut as the right thing to do, given Alberta’s struggling oil and gas-based economy. But they suggested that it was not grounded in self-sacrifice but by cynical politics employed by Kenney to give his government cover when they try to make pay cuts to public sector workers.

Even at $121,000, Alberta politicians make more than their closest provincial rival, Ontario, at $116,550.

“Suggesting to cut the pay of politicians a few hundred dollars a month to give them licence to screw over the working people of Alberta is frankly ridiculous,” NDP member Thomas Dang told the meeting.

Saskatchewan MLAs now make $98,395 as their base salary, Premier Scott Moe makes $169,958.

What was paid to Dr. Janice MacKinnon former Saskatchewan Minister of Finance for her report?

Kenney travelled to Ontario and to Manitoba campaigning for Scheer and rallying support for the Conservative campaign. Who paid for the costs and flights?

Eugene Adamson

Medicine Hat

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